This must be the biggest joke of our times. And the joke is very much on the Indian team. Yes, the very same team whose members directly or indirectly bring in at least 70-80% of the revenues generated by cricket’s governing body, the International Cricket Council, in the name of World Cups and Mini World Cups. And no, we are not referring to the ‘entertaining’ telecast of the Champions Trophy that has disgusted many a genuine Indian cricket fan.

It all happened like this. On the eve of the Indians’ opening Champions Trophy game against Zimbabwe, Sahara India, the team sponsors who had paid a massive amount to bag the rights to display their logo on the team clothing, pulled out of their sponsorship contract with the Board of Control for Cricket in India. They were forced to do so because the ICC, in its bid to protect its major sponsors, had invoked the ‘Ambush Marketing’ clause to prevent Sahara from projecting their logo. The reason given was the logo resembled that of Sahara Airlines, whose interest, according to the ICC, clashed with that of South African Airways, the official airline.

Now how an airline operating between Bangalore and Delhi and Mumbai can affect one which operates between Johannesburg and Mumbai and London is something which can only be explained by the wise men at the helm of the ICC. Anyway, whatever be the reason beyond the ICC diktat, the end result was that the Indian team walked out for their match against Zimbabwe without a logo to show.

Actually, this isn’t much of a joke but a very serious matter. Coming after unheard of clauses like no rival endorsements 30 days prior or post to any of the ICC-run tournaments, this latest development could well lead to a game very different to that we know of as cricket. For, if the bodies responsible for the conduct of the game get more concerned about the commerce instead; if the people at the helm start washing their dirty linen in public; if personality clashes take precedence over everything else, this game is as good as dead.

By the way, this is not about the Indian cricketers losing out - Sahara India has promised to pay them their share – but its all about the danger of driving away sponsors. Without sponsorship there will be no game just as without a game, there is no question of sponsorship. Which is why this issue is even more baffling and makes you think why the ICC’s two Malcolms – Gray and Speed – want to get at BCCI chief Jagmohan Dalmiya so badly. What could possibly make them so desperate and what is Dalmiya’s role here? Questions, questions but no answers, at least none that we know of.

Perhaps, just perhaps, this is not even between the ICC and BCCI. Maybe some others are behind the mishandling of the whole affair, all of which will become clear one day or the other. Till then we can only ponder and then hope that cricket will survive all this.

Meantime, don’t be surprised if the Indian team walks out with a different logo very soon. That will be unfair to Sahara India but these days when cricket itself isn’t very fair, it is too much to expect commerce to be fair. May the best sponsor – an ICC approved one that is - win.