The Hindu : National : ODI, T20 are of high public interest: Centre

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Thursday, Oct 04, 2007
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ODI, T20 are of high public interest: Centre

New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday issued a notification declaring that all official one-day and Twenty20 matches played by the Indian men’s cricket team were of “high public interest,” for which private broadcasters had to share the feed with Prasar Bharati.

The notification was placed before the Delhi High Court, which was hearing a public interest litigation petition seeking a direction to Prasar Bharati to telecast live on Doordarshan Test matches played by India.

The government, however, refused to place all Test matches on a par with the ODI and T20 matches.

The government also notified “semi-finals and finals of men’s World Cup and International Cricket Council Championship Trophy” as sporting events of national importance.

Petitioner Ravi Dev Gupta, a cricket fan, however, objected to the government’s stand and said the court had to decide the larger issue whether or not Test matches were sporting events of national importance vis-a-vis ODIs and T20.

But a Bench comprising Chief Justice M.K. Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Khanna refused to pass any order and posted the matter for November observing, “Would you [Gupta] like to see the match after yesterday’s [Tuesday’s] performance?”

Earlier, Prasar Bharati submitted that one-day matches were bound to be telecast on Doordarshan, but there were some difficulties in telecasting Test matches. — PTI

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