There was no sponsor's name on Team India's jersey in the 2003 World Cup, this quarrel was the reason.

Cricket News Desk. Sahara India was a sponsor of Indian cricket from 2001 to 2013. We will discuss this in more detail as it is a very interesting story. During its sponsorship period, Team India won major events such as the Champions Trophy (2002), World T20 Trophy (2007), Asia Cup (2010), World Cup (2011) and Champions Trophy (2013). Note: After that, no other senior has won an ICC trophy in a jersey bearing a sponsor's logo.

Despite this, his relations with Team India were bad and believe me he decided to break the contract midway twice. Everyone knows that when Team India played the 2003 World Cup, they were the sponsors, but the truth is that just a few days before the World Cup, they had said that they would not sponsor the team for the World Cup. The reason for this was the policy made by ICC for sponsors. For the second time in 2012, he again decided to terminate the contract midway. This time his relations with BCCI had become strained because of his Pune IPL team. Then he also asked his IPL team not to play in IPL.

Now let us return to the 2003 World Cup. They were the sponsors of Team India, but if you see the pictures of that World Cup, Sahara's name was not on Team India's jersey. The reason behind this was that he had refused to sponsor the team. Actually this fight happened even before the World Cup.

It started with the 2002 Champions Trophy which was played in Sri Lanka. Even during that trophy, despite Sahara being the team sponsor, there was no logo on the jersey of Team India. At that time there was a lot of uproar in the ICC regarding the anti-ambush marketing clause and the ICC had said that their rival brands who are their sponsors cannot put their logo on the jersey of any team. At that time Sahara Group used to put Sahara Airlines logo on the jerseys of cricketers and since South African Airlines was the sponsor of ICC, ICC said that Sahara Airlines logo could not be put on the jerseys of the Indian team. None of BCCI's efforts have been successful and ICC has also not given any relaxation in this situation.

The result was that Sahara did not sponsor the team and BCCI suffered huge losses. On 5 October 2002, the BCCI promised Sahara in a letter that they would resolve the issue before the 2003 World Cup so that they could continue as sponsors, but this did not happen. Sahara Group was also ready to allow the word 'Subrata' to be written in place of 'Sahara' but ICC did not accept this either. Actually it became a question of prestige for BCCI but they could not do anything.

Soon the 2003 World Cup came and the same feud started again. This time also ICC refused to give any concession and on the other hand BCCI did not allow Sahara India to separate from itself to save its losses. The conflict was over the airline business – ICC sponsor South African Airlines had the full support of the ICC. BCCI also threatened ICC that they will seek damages against this strange decision and if necessary will approach the International Court of Justice in Lausanne (Switzerland).

The then BCCI chief was Jagmohan Dalmiya. Although he was also a very influential official, at that time BCCI did not have the same status over ICC as it has today. Nothing happened and despite all this, Sahara did not leave BCCI and put the logo of his new project 'Aamby Valley' on the jerseys of Indian players during the World Cup in South Africa. He did not get any commercial benefit from it as it was India's real estate project, but despite the losses he continued to 'support' Indian cricket.