Downturn of economy! Some of the word’s biggest banks do not seem to have an inkling of that. One of them, the Royal Bank of Scotland has reportedly “blown up” an amount as big as 200 million pound on a “reckless” signing spree with a few internationally acclaimed sports stars. Cricket Maestro Sachin being one of them, international cricket seemed to come under the limelight for all wrong reasons. The Royal bank of Scotland was known to the world as one of the biggest patrons of sports.

Be it cricket or rugby, golf or formula one---RBS never came short of funds for sponsoring some of the major international sports events. So far as international cricket is concerned, the Nat West Trophy and last year’s England tour of India were sponsored by this High street bank. And this association with the sports world cost the bank dearly. Perhaps it was too expensive for a bank that announced a 28 billion pounds loss just the last month.

But it is not the international cricket star Sachin alone who got dragged into the controversy by signing the “reckless” contract with this UK based bank. In fact he is among a slew of other stars who were found to be hired by the bank that apparently could not do anything in moderation. Zara Phillips, the Queen’s granddaughter and a rider, Golfer Jack Nicklaus, and Sir Jackie Stewart, the former racing champion, were all paid astronomical figures by the bank for acting as its “global ambassadors”.

Tendulkar happened to sign the contract just before, Sir Fred Goodwin, the bank's former CEO, ousted last October. The other sports stars were also signed the deal under this man, who used to draw a fat salary of £ 4.2million per annum as head of RBS and was awarded a pension of £8.4 million. He was however, not unavailable for any comment. Just a week ago, the bank was in the middle of controversy by announcing a pay packet of nearly £1 billion in bonuses. Now this one leaves the high profile bank with eggs in its face.

However, what the bank maintains is: the sponsorship extravaganza was according to the book and “sponsorship agreements were negotiated on commercial principles and meet strict corporate governance rules.” The Bank also makes it clear that it will be obliged to honor all contracts signed under Sir Fred. While, a spokeswoman for Zara Phillip’s spokes person informed the media that: “RBS has made no move to renegotiate the contract.” Jackie Stewart, the former racing champion held “I am still with RBS. My contract has nearly two years to run and they always honour contracts.” It means millions will continue to get drained out, allegedly out of tax payers’ money.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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