BCCI won't go ahead with TV channel

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has abandoned tentative plans to start its own TV channel in the wake of the broadcast-rights dispute that cast such an unwelcome shadow over the last Indian season. The channel had been proposed by IS Bindra, president of the Punjab Cricket Association, and Lalit Modi of the Rajasthan Cricket Association.

The Khaleej Times quoted Jyoti Bajpai, the BCCI treasurer, as saying: "We can't see such a thing happening for a long time. Not in the near future anyway."

With ESPN-Star, Zee and the BCCI fighting pitched battles in the courts, Bindra and Modi had suggested that having a channel run by the board would prevent such controversies and also allow cricketers to earn even more as a result of increased TV revenue.

According to Bajpai, last season's fiasco has resulted in the board taking fresh stock of the whole tender process. This will now be done in two stages, with the first stage considering whether the said TV channel had a pedigree when it came to cricket telecasts.

"There would be an initial screening of interested companies where it would be ascertained if they are technically qualified to telecast the matches," said Bajpai. "Only once they clear the specifications spelled out by us would be they considered for telecasting rights." According to the new criteria, only the likes of ESPN, Star Sports, Ten Sports, Doordarshan and Set Max would be eligible to bid for telecast rights. Zee, which outbid ESPN-Star before the matter ended up in the courts last year, would be an outsider, even though they have recently launched a sports channel.

The biggest gainer from the telecast-rights fallout ahead of the Australia series last season was Doordarshan, who got to telecast high-profile matches involving Australia, Pakistan and South Africa. In addition to the loss of revenue that resulted from hurriedly putting together a deal with the national broadcaster, the BCCI were said to be far from satisfied with the quality of the finished product - viewers became quite accustomed to overs being a five-ball affair as commercials took centre-stage.