Sky faces reality of tour blackout

The revelation at the weekend that England's Test and ODIs in India might not be available on satellite broadcaster BSkyB has shocked those who subscribe to the channel and have been able to watch almost every England match abroad since 1990.

It had been assumed that Sky would acquire the rights, but the first signs that all was not well came last week when Charles Colvile, their anchorman during the Under-19 World Cup, told viewers that nothing had been agreed. Over the weekend, it became clear that Sky was far from guaranteed to secure the deal, and even if it did, it might not be able to use its familiar commentary team.

Reports in today's newspapers suggest that Sky, who has a production team on standby, are privately seething, but they will not know the outcome of a rather muddled tendering process until the middle of this week. Sky's initial bid of around $9 million was rejected on Saturday - the BBC's Test Match Special face having to pay around $1.7million for their radio rights.

The delay stems from the fact that the Indian board only awarded a four-year deal for TV rights on Friday. Nimbus, who paid $612 million for the contract, can now sell secondary rights on the TV, radio and internet.

But in the UK, specialist satellite channels Zee TV and Sony Asia, who both target an Asian audience, are believed to be seriously interested, and Zee has worked closely with Nimbus before. If either does win the rights, then viewers who do not already subscribe will need to take out an extra subscription to see the matches.