India's reluctant cricketers
to meet ICC chief

India's players are scheduled to meet International Cricket Council chief executive Malcolm Speed to try to resolve the contracts dispute which threatens their participation in the Champions' Trophy tournament in Sri Lanka.

At a news conference on Wednesday, on the eve of the fourth and final Test against England at The Oval, India captain Sourav Ganguly said it still appears that India's leading players would not be going to the biggest international one-day tournament outside the World Cup, starting in eight days' time.

"We are supposed to meet Malcolm Speed at some stage so things might change before that," Ganguly said.

"It looks like we are not going to be going but at the same time there's been a little bit of progress.

"It's not been enough to solve the problem yet. There's still nine or 10 days before the tournament starts and I hope things can be resolved."

The 16-man India squad have written to the Board of Control for Cricket in India saying they can abide by an ambush marketing clause which would prevent players endorsing products of rival companies to official sponsors 30 days each side of ICC events.

But the Indians, who include Ganguly and India's leading player Sachin Tendulkar, said some unspecified aspects of the contract are still unacceptable.

BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya has urged the ICC to negotiate directly with the players although the world governing body has maintained that it only deals with governing boards.

The tournament had been under some threat but players from several major countries agreed last week to sign up and they were joined on Tuesday by the South Africans, leaving India as the lone dissenters.

The ICC Contract Row - Complete Coverage:

Mail Cricket Editor