ICC Board meets to discuss audio-visual rights for ICC Events

The International Cricket Council's (ICC) Board is meeting in Dubai on Saturday to discuss the sale of audio-visual rights for ICC Events from late 2007 to 2015.

This is the latest stage in the process of exploiting the ICC's commercial rights for the eight-year period and follows the issuing of an Invitation to Tender (ITT) in October and the receipt of bids for those rights.

ICC Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Speed said: "This is an exciting time for cricket but also a hugely significant time.

"We have already been gratified and encouraged by the high level of interest we have seen in our audio-visual rights and now the ICC's Board has the opportunity to discuss the options before us.

"The sale of our rights gives us the opportunity to place cricket on a sound financial footing for the next eight years and, by doing that, it will provide all our Members with the chance to both sustain and grow the game.

"Throughout this whole process we have only one aim in mind - securing the best deal for cricket," added Mr Speed.

Included in the eight-year period under discussion are 18 ICC tournaments with two ICC Cricket World Cups, in Asia (2011) and Australasia (2015), and a minimum of three ICC Champions Trophy tournaments.

Also included are the first two ICC Twenty20 World Championships, in South Africa (2007) and England (2009), the latter taking place in the ICC's centenary year.

And there are Cricket World Cup qualifiers, four ICC U/19 Cricket World Cups, and, for the first time, the Women's Cricket World Cup, with two tournaments scheduled for 2009 (Australia) and 2013 (India) in the eight-year timeframe.

An update of the process will be provided after the conclusion of the Board meeting.

The ICC Board is made up of the following Directors:

Percy Sonn (Chairman) - ICC President
Malcolm Speed - ICC Chief Executive Officer

Full Members
Creagh O'Connor - Australia
M.Abdul Aziz - Bangladesh
David Morgan - England
Sharad Pawar - India
Sir John Anderson KBE - New Zealand
Dr Nasim Ashraf - Pakistan
Jayantha Dharmadasa - Sri Lanka
Ray Mali - South Africa
Ken Gordon - West Indies
Peter Chingoka - Zimbabwe

Associate Members
Samir Inamdar - Kenya
Stanley Perlman - Israel
HRH Tunku Imran - Malaysia