Indian board raises stake four-fold

The Board of Control for Cricket in India may be in for a four-fold increase in revenues. It has announced that bids for the television rights of India's home matches for the next three years will be accepted till August 14.

The bid includes rights for bilateral one-day and Test series played at home and tournaments approved by the International Cricket Council, and runs from September 2004 to August 2007, reports Press Trust of India. This will include the rights for domestic matches conducted by the BCCI, but excludes special events like the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

Prasar Bharati was the successful bidder last time around, and they paid Rs230 crore for the privilege. This time, the figure is likely to go up significantly, a fact which was confirmed by Jagmohan Dalmiya, the board president. "We expect substantial jump over the existing cricket telecasting right," he told The Times of India. "This time the figure should be close to Rs1000 crore (approx US$217million)."

The BCCI made it clear that the bidding will be restricted to broadcasters who have their own existing in-house production, telecasting units and channel network, and have successfully telecast live and delayed international cricket events of international standard for at least two years (not as a licensee). The BCCI also drew attention to a clause that reads, "BCCI reserves the right in its discretion to cancel or amend the entire bidding process at any stage and to reject any or all bids without assigning any reason."

The forthcoming season has a spate of high-profile matches, starting with visits by Australia and South Africa in 2004, and followed by Pakistan in 2005.