BCCI invites bids for IPL rights; WSG vows to fight it out

The BCCI on Tuesday floated tenders for for global mobile, Internet and radio rights, along with TV broadcast for certain territories, of IPL matches between 2011 and 2014, a move that has been challenged by its estranged partner World Sport Group (WSG). In a public announcement, the Board of Contro
l for Cricket in India (BCCI) said, "The Indian Premier League (IPL), a sub-committee of the BCCI, invites bids in respect of global Internet and mobile rights along with certain television rights."

The board is, however, selling IPL radio rights excluding for the Middle East. It is also inviting bids for worldwide TV broadcast, excluding territories of the Indian sub-continent, Australia, South Africa, the Middle-East, the Caribbean, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The announcement comes at a time when the board is embroiled in a legal tussle with WSG that had initially bagged the global broadcast rights outside the Indian subcontinent.

WSG has challenged BCCI's decision to scrap their contract last year over the alleged payment of facilitation fee of Rs 450 crore to ex-IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi.

"WSG will take the necessary action to protect its commercial rights and those of its licencees around the world," the company said in a statement.

Condemning BCCI's move, WSG further said: "...the BCCI is yet to have its appeal in a dispute with WSG admitted by the Supreme Court following the Bombay High Court's ruling in WSG's favour."

BCCI Secretary N Srinivasan and MSM officials refused to comment on the issue.

At present, Multi Screen Media (MSM), owner of Set Max TV channel, holds the Indian sub-continent broadcasting rights of the domestic T20 league until 2017.

BCCI had signed a deal with World Sports Group in 2008 for USD one billion for the IPL broadcast rights and was later revised upwards to Rs 8,200 crore when MSM came on board.

However, in June last year, a new deal was renegotiated between the BCCI and MSM which kept WSG out of the broadcast deal. It was done after the board uncovered alleged financial irregularities in the award of contract by Modi.

Criticising BCCI's tender, WSG further said it is currently challenging the "BCCI's unfounded termination of its contract for the IPL's worldwide media rights outside of the Indian sub-continent".

BCCI's purported termination of the contract was in itself a contravention of the contract's terms for termination and was based on totally false allegations for which no evidence has ever been produced, it added.

As per BCCI's latest announcement, interested broadcasters, Internet operators and mobile network operators are required to submit bids on or before March 20, 2011 at its Chennai office.

"The winning bids will be announced in the manner set out in the invitation of tender," it added.

Tenders forms can be obtained from March 8 to March 15 at the IPL office in Mumbai on payment of a Rs 2 lakh non-refundable demand draft, it said.

While specifying the eligibility criteria for bidding, the BCCI has clarified any agency or company which has intention to resell the rights later on will not be eligible to bid.

BCCI and ICC at loggerheads yet again due to UDRS

Even before calm could be restored after the epic clash between India and England, another storm, it seems, is brewing between two different factions now. In a letter directed to Mr. Haroon Lorgat, the chief executive of the ICC, BCCI secretary N. Srinivasan has once again raised questions regarding the continued practice of referring to the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS).

The BCCI, in the letter, explains its staunch stand against the UDRS by asseverating that the presentation made by Hawk Eye to BCCI was not convincing and the supplier of the technology themselves felt that a “leap of faith” was necessary in order to accept the system.

The criticism comes in the wake of an incident in the match between India and England where an lbw decision against Ian Bell, given not out initially, was referred. Although the replays suggested the ball would go on to hit the stumps, the fact that Bell was well forward (over 2.5 metres as per the rule) helped turn the decision in his favour and he was allowed to stay, even though he had started walking on seeing the replays. Hence, the BCCI has raised questions over the validity and reliability of this technology.

In the letter, BCCI has also taken strong objection to the ICC representative David Richardson criticising MS Dhoni for highlighting the faults in the system in front of the media, without fully knowing the rules. Richardson made these comments after Dhoni called the system an “adulteration of technology with human judgement” in the post match press conference. Richardson was scathing in his disapproval of Dhoni’s remarks and conveyed his point of view on the matter to an Indian news channel.

BCCI not only expressed displeasure over Mr. Richardson’s remarks in the letter but also believed that “for ICCs representative to criticise a player for his post match press conference while the World Cup is being played tantamount to pressurising the player.”

Although the BCCI did not request an apology from the ICC, they do ask Cricket's Governing Body to ensure that its representatives refrain from speaking to the media in such a fashion in the future.

BCCI to give students free tickets for World Cup

New Delhi: To ensure capacity crowd at the stadiums, the organising committee of the 2011 cricket World Cup has decided to distribute free tickets to school and college students.

Tournament director Ratnakar Shetty told reporters here Thursday that the organising committee is in talks with the sponsors and the host associations to work out how many tickets can be distributed among the students.

"We have decided to distribute free tickets among students. We have lots of sponsorship programmes through which we will be distributing the tickets. State associations will also have some quota for the students. We want the state associations to throw their gates open for the students," said Shetty.

Shetty, who is also the chief administrative officer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said that free tickets will be given to draw crowds, specially for the non-India matches.

"The real challenge is to bring in people for non-India games and one of the suggestions is to bring in school and college children," he said.

Shetty said that ICC officials have visited Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata to inspect the stadia, which have been renovated.

"All the three stadiums in Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata have undergone massive renovation. We have made sure that the stadiums have better spectator services, media facilities and proper set-up for the broadcaster," he said.