The Hindu : Front Page : Court asks BCCI not to award telecast rights to any party

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 16, 2004

Front Page

Court asks BCCI not to award telecast rights to any party

MUMBAI, SEPT. 15. The Bombay High Court today asked the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) not to award contract to any party for cricket telecast rights from October 2004 to September 2008 until it decides the legal dispute between Zee Telefilm Ltd. and ESPN-Star Sports over the issue.

As Zee Telefilm Ltd. informed the court that it did not agree to its suggestion for fresh bidding, the Chief Justice, Dalveer Bhandari, and Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud decided to hear on merits the petition filed by ESPN-Star Sports challenging the BCCI move to award the contract for telecast rights to Zee Telefilms Ltd. for $308 million. Hearing the plea made by Zee Telefilm Ltd. and ESPN-Star Sports, the judges asked the BCCI to make a firm commitment of not awarding the contract to any party but the board sought time for a few hours to consult its members.

BCCI non-committal

The BCCI later expressed its inability to make such a commitment saying the Australian cricket team would visit India to play a four-test series starting from October 6 and, in keeping with International Cricket Council rules, the series would have to be telecast; otherwise, there would be a breach of condition of affiliation with the ICC.

BCCI counsel submitted that cricket matches had to be recorded for the benefit of the third umpire also.

Earlier, it had made a statement before the court that although Zee Telefilms Ltd. had won the bid, the contract had not yet been awarded to it.

In view of this statement, the court ordered the BCCI to maintain the status quo over its decision and not to award contract to anyone until the legal row between Zee Telefilms Ltd. and ESPN-Star Sports is resolved.

Both ESPN-Star Sports and Zee Telefilms today urged the court to ask the BCCI to give a firm commitment of not giving the contract to any third party unless their legal dispute on bagging the four-year telecast rights of cricket matches was settled.

Their counsel pointed out that reports in a section of the media wherein the BCCI president, Jagmohan Dalmiya, had stated that in case the dispute dragged on, the board might consider giving the contract to Prasar Bharati citing the benefit of the third umpire.

Zee Telefilms Ltd. yesterday filed an affidavit in the High Court saying that its board of directors were not agreeable to a suggestion put by the Division Bench for re-bidding.

ESPN-Star Sports contended that Zee was not eligible as it had violated a tender condition which stipulated that only those entities which had telecast experience of two years could apply for the contract.

Also, it did not satisfy this condition and alleged that the BCCI "deliberately" gave it a go-by.

It said that the PriceWaterHouse Coopers, a chartered accountancy firm, was engaged by the BCCI to be present at the time of opening the bids and to tabulate the financial prices mentioned in the bid copies handed over to them. — PTI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page