BCCI's telecast deals top $1 billion

The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced on Wednesday it had secured rights valued at over $1 billion after signing a five-year deal to play one-day games in neutral venues.

Zee Telefilms Ltd., India's biggest listed media firm, bid $219.15 million to acquire the media rights for at least 25 games in venues such as United States, Hong Kong, Canada, Holland, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai.

Lalit Modi, marketing committee head of the BCCI, told a news conference that the Board was talking with the England Cricket Board (ECB) about staging some matches in Britain.

Australia, Pakistan, West Indies and England have confirmed participation in the series, targeting the huge expatriate population, he said.

"The total value of BCCI property sold stands at $1.052 billion," he said.

Revenue-sharing for the bilateral games would be worked out with individual boards.

In February, the BCCI sold its global telecast rights for international and domestic matches in India for four years for $612 million.

Most games in neutral venues would involve India and Pakistan after the two boards signed a deal on Thursday to play at least 15 one-dayers in off-shore venues over five years.

The extra games were criticised by International Cricket Council (ICC) president Ehsan Mani last week, who warned boards over player burnout.

The ICC chief felt frequent India-Pakistan meetings would also diminish the special status of their competition.

However, BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah and Saleem Altaf, director, cricket operations of Pakistan Cricket Board, denied the boards are only interested in making money.

"The ICC also wants to encourage games in non-Test nations," Shah said. "We've a lot of fans in the Middle East."

Altaf said he has not heard of any player protests.

BCCI vice-president Inderjit Singh Bindra allayed concerns that matches at neutral venues could become a target for match-fixing.

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) report on the match-fixing scandal which rocked the game in 2000 said non-regular venues bred corruption. As a result, the government banned the team from venues such as Sharjah, Toronto and Singapore until now.

"We have already taken permission from the government," Bindra said. "We are actually playing the tournaments, running it ourselves. Earlier there used to be middlemen."