London: Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly on Wednesday said there had been "a little bit of progress" on the sponsorship issue and hoped the controversy would be resolved in time for the top Indian cricketers to participate in the Champions Trophy later this month in Sri Lanka. "There is still eight or nine days left and I hope things get resolved," said Ganguly before India's practice session ahead of the fourth and final Test against England starting on Thursday. Ganguly said his team was to meet ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed soon and it might bring about some progress on the issue. "There has been a little bit of progress but it is not enough to solve the problem yet. "But we are supposed to meet Malcolm Speed at some stage and things might change after that," Ganguly said. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has requested ICC to talk to the players directly as it did not have powers to make any changes in the ICC clauses as demanded by the players. Ganguly said India was not alone on this issue, as players from a few other teams had also not signed the ICC contracts for the September 12-29 tournament as yet. "When you speak to other players, they haven't signed the contract yet. You speak to the England team, you speak to the Australian team - they haven't signed yet." Ganguly also lamented the fact that Indian cricketers did not have a representative body as their counterparts in other teams. "The problem is we don't have a representative like England or Australia or South Africa. It is then up to us to send questions back to BCCI, and it goes back to the ICC." Ganguly said it is the "mentality" of the Indian players that prevents them from joining a representative international body like the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA). "I think it has lot to do with the mentality - that is how you think. A lot of time when you have a body, you are thought to be rebel which is not the case." "At some stage we need to (have a body) because we play a lot of cricket. It is not possible for us to keep co-ordinating in the middle of a Test. It has not happened in India as it has in some other parts of the world. It is not so in Pakistan nor in Sri Lanka and probably it is the way it works in Asian countries."
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Dalmiya puts ball in ICC court to resolve row
Honda hopeful of early solution to contract issue

Tags: cricket, london, indian skipper saurav ganguly, champions trophy, sri lanka, india, england, icc chief executive malcolm speed, board of control for cricket in india, bcci, australian cricket team, england, australia, south africa, federation of international cricketers' associations, fica, sri lanka, asian countries.