Indian World Cup heroes Kapil Dev and Madan Lal have begun legal action over player contracts for this year's tournament.

The pair, both members of India's 1983 World Cup-winning side, were among six signatories to a public litigation petition submitted to the High Court in Delhi.

We have to back our players Kapil Dev

They are seeking a direction that the government should not pay any tax benefits to the official sponsors of the tournament should any Indian player be banned from the tournament.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India and the International Cricket Council have been at loggerheads over clauses in the contracts since last year.

They prohibit players from endorsing any products which may affect the interests of the official sponsors.

Madan Lal: India should be a special case

The BCCI returned signed contracts on behalf of the 15 members of their squad by the 14 January deadline, but it is believed that the contentious clauses had been deleted.

The ICC has yet to announce whether they consider the signed contracts to be acceptable. If not, they could ban the 15 players from taking part in the tournament.

Three of the four tournament sponsors - Pepsi, Hero Honda and LG Electronics - have significant business interests in India.

And Madan Lal said: "The Indian players have to be shown consideration since almost 80 per cent of the sponsorship money for the World Cup comes from India."

The court has ordered the ICC and the sponsors named in the petition to submit their responses by Tuesday.

The BCCI has also contacted the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) about the matter.

CAS is a highly respected independent body which has settled rows connected to the Sydney Olympics and the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in recent years.