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NEW DELHI, Wednesday (AFP) India's cricket officials expressed confidence Wednesday the country's top stars will take part in next month's World Cup despite the ongoing contracts row.

"Take it from me, the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly will be there at the World Cup," an official of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) told AFP.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has confirmed it received "signed but altered" contracts from India by the Tuesday deadline, but said a decision whether they will be accepted will be taken later in the week.

Indian cricketers, who ended a tour of New Zealand Tuesday, conditionally signed the contracts last week without accepting clauses that bar them from endorsing non-official sponsors before and after the tournament. The BCCI official, speaking privately, said the players were on a safe wicket even if the matter went to the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Lausanne, Switzerland.

"We have asked for arbitration because we are confident we have a good case," he said.

"The Court's decision could take weeks, by which time the World Cup would not only have started, but ended as well.

"The ICC can't ban players or enforce the players' terms till the matter is resolved, legally or otherwise." Many Indian stars, including Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, enjoy lucrative deals with non-official sponsors, which they may have to forego if the original World Cup contracts are enforced.

The other 13 teams playing in the February 8-March 23 tournament have signed the players' terms without qualification, the ICC has noted.

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