New Delhi, Aug. 19 : Samsung India is calling the ICC's bluff. The Rs 1,350-crore television-to-white goods maker is launching a series of five ads featuring seven Indian cricketers that will start airing tonight. Samsung's move will raise the pitch in the battle over the contentious ambush marketing clause that the world cricket body wants to introduce in the players' contract ahead of the Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka beginning from September 19. The offending clause requires cricketers to stop endorsing products of companies that compete with those marketed by the tournament sponsors one month before the start of the event and till one month after the finals. Samsung's decision to air its ads tonight - exactly a month before the tournament - indicates that the rivals of the tournament sponsor are not prepared to back down on the issue. 'We are ready to take them head on,' said one Samsung official. Samsung, which has signed on seven cricketers - Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Mongia, Ajay Ratra and Javagal Srinath - is keen to draw maximum dividend from its marketing strategy that will hurt LG Electronics, a key sponsor. 'We are 100 per cent behind the decision of the players (not to sign the contract). But if the International Cricket Council and the Board of Cricket Control in India armtwist the players into the signing the contracts, we will have a contingency plan to fall back upon,' Samsung sources said but refused to spell out what it was. 'We will not have any hard feelings against the cricketers (if they sign the contract) and are committed to stand solidly behind them,' they said. Samsung India vice-president Ravindra Zutshi said: 'We hope that BCCI will work out something in favour of itself and the players and, at the same time, not compromise our interests. We signed up these players in March this year when neither party was aware of the clause.' The four tournament sponsors - Pepsi, LG Electronics, Hero Honda and South African Airways - have insisted on such a clause to avoid being 'ambushed' by rivals as Pepsi did during the Cricket World Cup in 1996-97 with its 'Nothing official about it' campaign. Coca-Cola was the official sponsor but Pepsi gained a lot of mileage with the irreverent dig at its Atlanta-based rival. 'Ambush marketing is a fact of life. The latest example was at the World Cup in South Korea and Japan where several players appeared in Pepsi ads even though Coke was the official sponsor. The sports bodies should work out a solution to this problem,' Zutshi said. 'We can't have double standards here: What was fine in football has to be okay in cricket as well,' said one official. The biggest beef over the clause is that players are being forced to sign a contract that forces them to renege on their earlier endorsement deals. Samsung says the clause cannot be used to scupper its contract with the seven cricketers because LG signed on as a tournament official only in July.