Ambush leading to Anguish

As rightly pointed out by Nehal and a few others, ambush marketing and IPR-restricting contractual agreements are creating a complicated situation for all the involved stakeholders.

What I analyze from the viewpoints of various stakeholders is as follows:

• The official sponsors are understandably infuriated as competing brands are making inroads into the tournament by roping in famous players with insanely high brand values and thus jeopardizing their expensive marketing strategies.
• ICC, being answerable to the official sponsors, is making forceful restrictions on the IPR of the players. They are probably doing so in the fear that the official sponsors would slap damage charges against them if they suffer losses at the tournament.
• The players on the other hand are under pressure too. They have already signed contracts with competing sponsors and they cannot breach existing contracts. They are also unwilling to relinquish their IPR and commercial rights, which they claim is rightfully theirs as professionals. At the same time, by doing so, they carry the risk of being termed as non-compliant by the ICC.
• The BCCI isn’t in a very good position too, as they are under pressure from ICC on one hand and the Indian players on the other.
• In the midst of all these conflicts of interest, the competing brands are finding ways to promote themselves in connection with the Champions Trophy, without having to pay the sponsorship fee and at the same time without breaking any laws.

Thus, everyone right from the ICC to the sponsors to the players is entrapped in a web of protecting their own interests, thus leading to an absolute NO-WIN situation!!

The only solution to this controversial situation is that the ICC, the BCCI and the Indian players mutually negotiate so as to reach a common consensus benefitting all of them. The players have already taken up the issue of their IPR rights with BCCI. While capitalizing on their image and brand value to maximize their earnings, in the future, players should be careful while endorsing brands such that they will not out rightly conflict the interests of ICC. The ICC in turn has to give up forceful and short-notice agreements and try to get into a formalized, well planned out contractual agreement with the players stating explicitly who amongst them has what rights under what circumstances.