The Hindu Business Line : India's loss settles Hutch row with Reliance

New Delhi March 24 India's loss to Sri Lanka is not all bad news for some corporates. In the case of Hutch, it has resulted in its resolution of the dispute with Reliance over a service endorsed by Sachin Tendulkar.

Nazara Technologies, which was offering the service to Reliance, has pulled out the ads featuring Tendulkar following a complaint by Hutch to the International Cricket Council.

But neither Reliance nor Nazara is complaining. With India all set to make an early exit from the World Cup, neither seems to be interested with the service.

Earlier, Hutch being one of the official sponsors of the ongoing cricket World Cup, had made a complaint to the International Cricket Council about Sachin Tendulkar endorsing Reliance Communications' telecom products.

It said this amounts to ambush marketing. Speaking to Business Line, Mr Nitish Mittersain, CEO, Nazara Technologies, said, "We have pulled out the advertisements since Hutch was having an issue with it."

Reliance sources also confirmed that the company has withdrawn the service since it anyway had signed the contract with Nazara till March 18.

"We have decide not to renew the agreement," said a Reliance source.

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.

The controversy started after Nazara offered the service to Reliance. Hutch had said that players taking part in the World Cup are not allowed to endorse the competition of sponsors.

A week ago, when India's hopes of moving ahead in the World Cup was still bright, Reliance was in no mood to give up on the service and had countered the Hutch allegations saying that they do not have any direct agreement with Tendulkar to endorse any of their products.

Reliance sources had said that the service in question was being taken from content service provider Nazara which has the rights to offer the service.

But now with India losing its way in the World Cup, the companies have decided to give up the offensive posture to allow Hutch the rights to a losing Indian team.

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