MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India's Marketing Committee disagreed on core technical points of the Invitation to Tender (ITT) for its four-year (2005-2009) television rights for domestic and international matches and failed to determine the eligible bidders on technical count.

Following a directive by the Delhi High Court on October 4, the Marketing Committee opened the technical bids of ESPN-STAR Sports, Prasar Bharati, SET Max and Zee Telefilms here on Sunday.

Sub-committee formed

After a three-hour meeting the BCCI President Ranbir Singh Mahendra told reporters that a sub-committee consisting of former BCCI Presidents, Inderjit Singh Bindra, Jagmohan Dalmiya and himself will first seek the opinion of its legal counsel Soli Sorabji on Monday and then identify the eligible bidders. Thereafter the Sub-committee's decision as to the number of television companies that meet the technical bids part of the ITT will be conveyed to the Delhi High Court on October 19.

One of the four television companies, Zee Telefilms filed a lawsuit against the BCCI contending that the ITT was framed to prevent the Indian television companies from taking part in the bid process and favouring ESPN-STAR Sports.

After several hearings, the Delhi High Court acceded to the BCCI request to allow it to open the technical bids. The eligibility clause in the BCCI's tender invitation had said that `only those entitles that own and control 24-hours television programming services and have its own existing channel as well as first hand experience of having successfully shown in its own channel live international cricket matches (Tests/One-day internationals) as Original First Licensee of the Event Owner — except that the Original first licensee being executed by any agency for/or on behalf of the original event owner — during each of the last three years (2002, 2003, 2004) prior to the date of notification of ITT, shall be eligible to submit offers.

A majority of the members were satisfied with the technical bids of Prasar Bharati which held the five-year BCCI TV rights from 1999 to 2004, ESPN-STAR Sports and SET Max, which had attached a letter from the International Cricket Council (ICC) saying that it had appointed Global Cricket Corporation (GCC) to market television rights for seven years from 2001 to 2007. SET Max in turn signed a contract with GCC to broadcast the ICC promoted junior and senior World Cups and the Champions Trophy for seven years.

It is also understood that Zee Telefilms in its covering letter informed the BCCI that it is willing to withdraw court cases if it is awarded the television rights.

According to reliable sources many members were unhappy with Zee which had dragged the BCCI to court last year and as a result of which the BCCI had to spend around Rs 3.5 crores on litigation.

To meet in Kolkata

While the sub-committee's decision will be told to the Delhi High Court on October 19, the BCCI has convened a Marketing Committee meeting at Kolkata on October 20 to make an interim arrangement for the India- Sri Lanka seven match series to start at Nagpur on October 25, in the event of the court case not being not sorted out on October 19. In the recent past the BCCI had hired Ten Sports and TWI to produce pictures and awarded the broadcasting rights to Prasar Bharati.

Although the BCCI's revenue from TV rights shot up by 210 per cent last year, it was far less than the sum it would have got had it successfully completed the bid process. Zee Telefilms had offered US$ 308 million (Rs. 1350 crores for four years).

At the Marketing Committee here on Sunday Mr. Bindra informed members that Nimbus Sports is ready to meet BCCI's floor price of US $2.14 million for each of the seven one-day matches against Sri Lanka. He told Mr. Dalmiya that if he can award Nimbus the Afro-Asian championship for close to US$ 12 million for three years, then why not the seven matches against Sri Lanka.

Last year the BCCI received money from Prasar Bharati (for the series against Australia) only for the number of balls bowled in a Test match and not a lump sum amount.

A Mumbai Cricket Association official said: "The India-Australia Test played at the Wankhede Stadium last October lasted for a little over two days and the BCCI received money only for two and a half days.''

Ranbir Singh Mahendra (President, BCCI), S.K. Nair (Secretary, BCCI), Messrs. Kamal Morarka, Rajiv Shukla, Ranga Reddy (Vice-Presidents, BCCI), Gautam Dasgupta (Jt. Secretary), J. Bajpai (Treasurer), Jagmohan Dalmiya, I.S. Bindra and N. Srinivasan and the BCCI's legal advisor Usha Nath Banerjee attended the meeting.

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