Sahara to take hockey's ad-hoc body to court over logo issue

New Delhi, Feb 3 (PTI) Indian hockey has been rocked by
yet another controversy with team's main sponsor Sahara India
Pariwar threatening to take the game's administrators, Indian
Olympic Association-appointed ad-hoc committee, to court for
not using the company logo on the national team's outfit.

Sahara's sports management company, Kolkata-based Leisure
Sports Management Private Limited has served a legal notice to
the ad-hoc body for breach of contract which calls for the use
of logo in the national team's jersey for every international
outing.

"Yes, we have sent them (the ad-hoc committee) a legal
notice for playing without Sahara logo in the on-going Punjab
Gold Cup in Chandigarh and if they don't respond to our
notice, we will take them to the court," Chairman and Managing
Director of LSM, SS Dasgupta told PTI.

On behalf of Sahara, LSM had entered into an eight-year
contract of approximately Rs 20 crore with the erstwhile
Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) in 2004 to use the company logo
in the senior as well as junior national team's outfit during
all international tournaments.

After KPS Gill-backed IHF's dissolution in April last
year, the contract still existed and the national team used
Sahara logo in four international tournaments, the most recent
among them was senior team's four-Test Argentina tour last
month.

Dasgupta, however, expressed astonishment over
discrepancy in using the sponsor's logo and said as far as
payments were concerned, the company cannot pay such huge
money to anybody without proper documents as a legal battle is
on between Gill-led IHF and the ad-hoc body.

"Since April the national team played with our logo in
four tournaments, Azlan Shah, junior Asia Cup in Hyderabad,
junior team's four-nation event in Australia and senior's
Argentina tour but I don't understand why they didn't use the
logo in two events (Junior team's Argentina tour and on-going
Punjab Gold Cup)," Dasgupta said.

"We were always ready to pay the amount, but we cannot
pay the money to anyone without proper papers. We have sent
them an addendum in August, they even agreed to it. Ad-hoc
committee member A K Mattoo, who is handling the sponsorship
issue, had raised objection in two clauses and asked them to
be changed. Accordingly, we ratified the clauses and sent it
back but till today they haven't signed on it.

"They have not written a single letter to us since then.
We cannot pay the money this way."

The ad-hoc committee, however, had a different take on
the matter, saying they were forced to scrap Sahara's logo
from the player's jersey in the on-going Punjab Gold Cup after
the company failed to keep its promise of paying their dues.

"It has been nine months Sahara haven't given a single
penny to us, but still we have using their logo during
international tournaments as they promised us before every
international outing they will pay the dues soon. But how long
can this last," ad-hoc committee convenor Mohd Aslam said.

"Even they haven't paid the bills of the manufacturer's
who made the kitts. Everything was only in conversation and it
never materialised.

"Every sponsorship deal is a give and take policy. If you
want something, you have to give something in return."

Asked whether they have received any legal notice from
Sahara, he said he, "I don't have any knowledge about it but
if we get something our lawyer is good enough to handle the
issue."