The Hindu Business Line : All's not fair off the field, charges Hutch

New Delhi March 17 Mobile operator Hutch, one of the official sponsors of the ongoing cricket World Cup, has made a complaint to the International Cricket Council about Sachin Tendulkar endorsing Reliance Communications' telecom products. It said this amounts to ambush marketing.

Hutch has reiterated that players taking part in the World Cup are not allowed to endorse the competition of sponsors, Hutch being one of them. "The company has taken it up with ICC, saying this is illegal. None of the players who are participating in the World Cup can endorse competition because Hutch is the global sponsor of the ICC World Cup," the spokesperson said, adding that despite Hutch writing to ICC over a week ago, the world cricket body has so far not taken any action on this front.

Reliance counter

Countering the allegations, Reliance sources said that they do not have any direct agreement with Tendulkar to endorse any of their products.

"The service in question is being taken from content service provider Nazara Technologies who has the rights to offer the service," said the source.

When contacted, Nazara officials said that Tendulkar was not endorsing any product or offering from any operators who are rival to Hutch. "We have an agreement with Sachin to offer a service that will enable subscribers of any operator to get cricket updates in Sachin's voice," said the official.

`Sachin Zone'

In February, Nazara had launched `Sachin Zone' that allowed fans to listen to Sachin sharing his views on various aspects of his life, his daily routine, activities with his friends and family and opinions on matters on and off field. Nazara has partnered with Onmobile, a Bangalore-based technology firm, to leverage its voice platforms for this concept.

Meanwhile, Sachin got out cheaply in India's first match against Bangladesh on Saturday in the ongoing World Cup series.

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