Corporates which have signed up Indian cricketers to endorse their products are busy amending their existing contracts with the players following the sponsorship row with the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Corporates find themselves restricted from airing commercials featuring these players because of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with ICC which restricts rival companies to air commercials featuring cricketers playing in any ICC tournament till 2007 for products specified in the contract.
Samsung, for instance, is learnt to have amended its contract with the seven Indian players it has signed up to endorse products other than consumer durables for which LG has entered into a contract with the ICC.
LG, one of the two global sponsors of the 2003-04 Cricket Wold Cup, apart from companies such as Hero Honda, has signed the MoU.
According to sources in Samsung, the contract between LG and the ICC is only for consumer durables. So Samsung is mulling the option of airing commercials for other products such as mobile phones and infotech gadgets, which are non-competing.
Ravinder Zutshi, vice-president (sales), Samsung India Electronics, said:
