The Madras high court on Thursday directed Prasar Bharati to telecast the upcoming India-Pakistan cricket series and gave the Board of Control for Cricket in India the freedom to engage any producer for the purpose of live feed, except Zee Telefilms Ltd and ESPN Star Sports.
The interim order was delivered by Justice K P Sivasubramanian, on a petition filed by Zee Telefilms challenging the BCCI's decision in September last year to cancel the tender process for telecasting rights for international cricket matches to be played in the country between October 1, 2004 and September 30, 2008.
The Judge also directed Prasar Bharati and the BCCI to maintain accounts of all receipts of income and expenditure during the Indo-Pak series.
Justice Sivasubramanian had on Wednesday reserved orders on the Zee petition at the conclusion of lengthy arguments, but said he would deliver interim orders for arrangement for the telecast of the Indo-Pak series on Friday.
The BCCI had said that the telecast rights' controversy could lead to cancellation of the series, because the International Cricket Council rules require television coverage of all Tests for third umpire decisions.
As the judge began to dictate his order, counsel for both Zee (P R Raman) and ESS (Vijay Narain) sought to know why they are being kept out.
BCCI counsel Somaiyaji made it clear that the Board would not have any dealing with either ZEE or ESS on the question of telecasting the Indo-Pak series.
When Zee's counsel told the court that his client is ready to negotiate with the BCCI on telecasting the series, the judge said it is out of question to award rights on a series by series basis.
"It is not like the old days. Today you have 365 days of cricket."
Somaiyaji said the BCCI, as the owner of the event, has the right to choose and cannot be dictated to by any one.
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Hours after the high court order, Prasar Bharati said it is yet to see whether Doordarshan had been given only the terrestrial rights or the satellite rights as well. After studying the order, it would make a proposal, Prasar Bharati CEO K S Sarma said.
Sports channels Ten Sports and Sony said they are keen to produce the forthcoming series and would approach BCCI for the purpose.
Pakistan are due to arrive in India on Monday to play three Tests and five One-Day Internationals on their first full tour of India since 1999.
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