Indian board cancels telecast-rights tender

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has told the Mumbai High Court that it has decided to cancel the tender for its television rights, and has indicated that it will initiate two new bids. ESPN-Star Sports, which had gone to court to challenge the BCCI's decision to award the rights to Zee Telefilms, has withdrawn the case after the cricket board's notification.

The board's representatives told the court that their tender with Zee was "not concluded", as the draft letter sent by them had not been accepted by Zee, and negotiations were still on. They said that they would make arrangements to telecast the matches themselves, and float two new tenders - one for the rights of the next three series, and the other for the next four years.

ESPN-Star withdrew its petition after the BCCI's announcement, but Zee was furious. Zee's lawyer asked the court to note that the ruling on the case itself had not yet been given, and that the surety amount of US$20million that the board had asked for had been given and accepted.

Zee said it would initiate legal action against the board's decision. Subhash Chandra, the company's head, made allegations of connivance between the Board and ESPN-Star Sports: "The court could also see it clearly," he claimed. "But since the petitioner ESPN-Star Sports, in collusion with the BCCI counsel, withdrew the petition, the court had no option than to record the statement and pass no order."

It is obvious that the board's worries are far from over. To start with, what was expected to be a windfall season for Indian cricket is likely to begin in the red. The forthcoming series against Australia, which was expected to be a licence to print money, may well now end up in a deficit. But as a BCCI official admitted, that is the least of their concerns at the moment: "Our problems might have just begun."