India's cricketers have signed their World Cup playing contracts but without agreeing to the controversial clause preventing them from keeping deals with personal sponsors, reports say.

It means the team are fast reaching an impasse with the International Cricket Council (ICC), the organisers of the World Cup which starts on 9 February.

Sourav Ganguly's men, currently touring New Zealand, have met the 14 January deadline for signing the contracts.

But they are unlikely to be accepted in their current form.

The ICC refuses to allow players to endorse non-official sponsors 30 days before and five days after the World Cup.

The ICC's Malcolm Gray has talked to India

Players sponsors are often direct competitors to the official ones.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has already told the ICC it cannot force its players to forgo existing personal deals.

Captain Ganguly was quoted by the Press Trust of India news agency as saying "We have told the ICC what our problems are.

"We have given our terms and conditions. There are certain areas that need to be looked into."

In addition to protecting their own interests, the players are not willing to let their images be used by the official sponsors for three months after the event.

"We all feel at the end of the day, it's got to be an adjustment from both the sides," Ganguly added.

Meanwhile the World Cup team has been dope-tested as a precautionary measure.

A local drug-testing agency in New Zealand has taken the players' urine samples.

The samples will be sent to Sydney, where an International Olympic Committee-approved laboratory would examine them before giving the results.

All teams in the World Cup will be subject to random drug-testing during the tournament.