ITV

Tag: BCCSL

  • TV rights for Sri Lankan cricket open from next year

    TV rights for Sri Lankan cricket open from next year

    MUMBAI: The confusion over who holds the rights for cricket played in Sri Lanka has been resolved.

    The country’s cricket board, Sri Lanka Cricket, has decided to honour the agreement with Taj Television but only as far as England’s tour of the island in November is concerned. Taj’s subsidiary Ten Sports will air the matches in Asia and Europe.

    There was a three way tussle involving Sri Lanka’s cricket board, Taj Television and World Sport Nimbus (WSN) and a hearing to this effect was going on in Singapore.

    After the England tour, however, the board, which earlier this month underwent a name change to Sri Lanka Cricket (from Broad of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka), has taken the decision to start a three year agreement bidding process. This will run from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2006.

    In tandem with the change in name, a commercial arm called Sri Lanka Cricket Incorporated, was also set up to look after the business interests of the game.

    An official release issued by Sri Lanka Cricket informs that applications together with the credentials should reach its marketing director on or before 29 September. Sri Lanka Cricket intends to make the bid document available for potential bidders before 1 November.

    Taj TV’s contract was supposed to run till August 2004. Now the Bukhatir broadcaster will have to bid all over again if it wants to show the likes of South Africa and Australia, both of which have scheduled tours to the island next year.

    The broadcast rights to Sri Lankan cricket has been a bone of contention for a while now. The rights originally rested with World Sport Nimbus (WSN), in a deal that was brokered when BCCSL was headed by Thilanga Sumathipala.

    When Sumathipala was ousted from his post as BCCSL president in 2001, an interim committee under Vijaya Malalasekera terminated WSN’s contract in October 2001 citing delays in payment of dues on the part of the sports marketing company.

    The rights subsequently went to Taj TV but WSN then retaliated by filing a $ 11 million damages claim against BCCSL before a Singapore tribunal.

    Matters came to a head after Sumathipala won the presidentship of the BCCSL in elections in June this year following the board’s re-instatement and reopened negotiations with WSN.

    As regards the $11 million claim that the Singapore court was to rule on, last heard WSN had come down to $4 million, but Sumathipala was asking it be further reduced to $2.75 million. As a sop, he was reportedly offering WSN the television rights for England’s tour in November as also priority in any future television contracts with Sri Lanka Cricket.

    How the latest deal was brokered is still to be ascertained but as a result of the compromise reached with Taj TV, Sri Lanka is likely to resume their twice-a-year Sharjah tours.

    Apart from England’s tour of Sri Lanka, Taj TV owns the rights to cricket played in Pakistan, West Indies, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Sharjah and Morocco. The last two are organised by Bukhatir’s Cricketers’ Benefit Fund Series.

  • WSN claims $11m. in damages from Lanka cricket board?

    WSN claims $11m. in damages from Lanka cricket board?

    MUMBAI: If its News Corp company Global Cricket Corporation (GCC) that is claiming damages from the International Cricket Council (ICC) for non-delivery of various rights and for damage to cricket properties during the World Cup tournament, in Sri Lanka it is the former part owner of GCC that is making its own damages claims.

    World Sport Nimbus (formerly a 50 per cent stakeholder in GCC), the 50:50 JV between Harish Thawani’s Nimbus Communications and World Sport Group, has reportedly sought financial damages in the region of $ 11 million against the Sri Lanka cricket board (BCCSL).

     
    The case is a fallout of BCCSL’s early termination in October 2001 of WSN’s television broadcasting contract. As per WSN’s original contract, it held the broadcast rights for international cricket played in the Emerald Isles till November 2003. Dubai-based Taj Television, which runs Ten Sports, subsequently picked up the cricket rights for a reported guarantee fee of $13.9 million.

    These are the facts of the case: The BCCSL cancelled its three-year $27.1 million broadcasting agreement with WSN in October 2001 after complaining that WSN had “repeatedly missed payment deadlines”. The BCCSL then signed a fresh three-year deal with Taj Television valid from mid-2002 to mid-2005.

    When WSN went to court on the matter, the BCCSL obtained an injunction against WSN in Sri Lanka but the legal wrangle moved to Singapore where WSN finally obtained an injunction overruling Colombo. A Singapore tribunal has ruled that BCCSL had wrongfully terminated WSN cricket website cricinfo.com recently reported.

    The tribunal has thus far ordered the BCCSL to pay $768,667 plus legal costs of approximately $250,000 to WSN. Additionally, it has ruled that WSN is “entitled to recover from the BCCSL damages to be assessed.”

    While the hearing date has been set for September, sources close to the proceedings say that WSN is claiming $ 11 million in damages. That means that the damages bill that has been thrown at the BCCSL is over $12 million.

    And considering that the BCCSL board announced a $900,000 loss for 2002 (due primarily to the lack of inbound tours but also because of increased player salaries), the Singapore tribunal’s ruling has the potential of bankrupting the Lankan board.

    New BCCSL president Thilanga Sumathipala, who was elected by a landslide last Friday (it was BCCSL’s first election in three years), has his task cut out trying to reach a fair settlement. It was Sumathipala who negotiated the original deal with WSN in 2000.

  • Nimbus threatens to seek damages after Sri Lanka cricket board terminates deal

    Nimbus threatens to seek damages after Sri Lanka cricket board terminates deal

    Production house WSG Nimbus, which saw its three-year television, radio and sponsorship deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) terminated on Tuesday, today threatened to sue for damages.

     

    BCCSL claims it was forced to foreclose the agreement due to constant delays in contractually agreed payments by Nimbus. BCCSL also obtained an ex parte court order in Colombo in support of this

     

    Nimbus, in an official release denied it had breached the agreement in any respect. The release further states that Nimbus would be going in appeal to have the order set aside and would also seek redressal “from BCCSL for the losses, damage and injury to its reputation and business emanating from this unjustified action by the BCCSL in seeking to terminate the agreement.”

     

    In January 2000, Nimbus had signed an agreement with BCSSL which was to run till 31 December 2003. According to the BCSSL, Nimbus has defaulted on its payments before as well. Last year in January, just before the England team’s tour to the Emerald Isles, Nimbus had defaulted on its payments and had been taken to court, is the board’s contention. Nimbus then agreed to execute bank guarantees before a certain date prior to every tour by cricket teams to Sri Lanka.

     

    As per the agreement, in case Nimbus were to default in issuing this guarantee, the agreement between BCSSL and Nimbus would cease to be in force. There is a three-test series set to begin on 14 November with the West Indies and Nimbus has yet to execute the bank guarantees, BCSSL says. The board approached the Sri Lankan attorney-general who advised them that the agreement with Nimbus ceased to exist as they had failed to honour the contract, is the charge made by BCSSL.

     

    Trans World International (TWI) which narrowly lost out to Nimbus on the original deal, reported to be $ 27 million, are now seen as favourites to secure the rights in the event that the termination stands.

  • Sri Lanka cricket rights still rest with us: Nimbus

    Sri Lanka cricket rights still rest with us: Nimbus

    MUMBAI: Scotching media speculation to the contrary, WSG Nimbus asserted on Wednesday that it continued to hold the commercial rights for international cricket to be played in Sri Lanka over the next three years.

    A company release said WSG Nimbus had honoured all its obligations to the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL). While admitting that there had been differences between the two parties, WSG Nimbus said they were due to evidence of tour confirmations not being made available by BCCSL as earlier agreed upon.

    BCCSL and Nimbus have now modified their agreements to the mutual satisfaction of both parties and have signed a fresh deal which vests commercial cricket rights of Sri Lanka international cricket 2001-2003 with WSG Nimbus, the release said.

    It was in November 2000 that WSG Nimbus bagged the rights for international cricket in Sri Lanka for a period of three years. The deal covered 14 tours and involved 180 days of international cricket.