The Indian cricket board (BCCI) has been given more time by the International Cricket Council to try and strike a deal with players to end the sponsorship row over next month's ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka. But ICC has insisted that it will not offer any concessions. "There is no cut-off time or deadline for India, but we do expect their players to sign the contract within two or three days," Malcolm Gray, president of ICC, said after a six-hour ICC executive committee meeting in Dubai. "We will not accept any changes in the contract at this stage because it will be unfair on other teams who have signed the agreement."

ICC set Friday as the deadline for member boards to inform it that their players had signed the tournament contracts and that their best available sides would be participating in tournament. After failing to reach a compromise with the players, it seemed that the Indians would have to send a second-string side to Sri Lanka. Even with the deadline extension, the odds remain against the BCCI and the players reaching a settlement.

Niranjan Shah, secretary of the BCCI, said that he could not see the players backing down. "At the moment, I don't see any possibility of the players signing the agreement in toto as required by the ICC," Shah said. "Unless there is any last-minute solution to the problem, which I don't foresee, it's all over for us to convince the players.

"The players want to sign the contract with some conditions which the ICC will not agree. We tried our best, but the players refused to listen to us. I still feel the ICC will not bow down to any condition from Indian players."

India are the only one among the participating nations not to have named their squad, with their players refusing to sign the sponsorship contract in its present form.

The Indian board put forward the compromise formula worked out by the Indian players, who have offered to play the tournament without signing the contract. The players also stated that they would urge their personal sponsors not to advertise during the course of the tournament.

Their compromise left ICC unimpressed. "We have rejected the Indians players proposal, read out by the Indian board at the meeting," said Gray. "It will be better if all the top Indian players come and play and give the public what they have been expecting. The matter is not confrontational, but neither are we talking about concessions."

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