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Tag: Nimbus Sport

  • Varun Mathur quits Nimbus Sports; to partner ITW Sports for new venture

    Varun Mathur quits Nimbus Sports; to partner ITW Sports for new venture

    MUMBAI: After close to two years with Nimbus Sport as its general manager, Varun Mathur has decided to take a big leap but within the confines of his expertise – sports management and marketing.

     

    Mathur will be partnering with ITW managing director and CEO Vikram Tanwar to lead the new initiative called ITW Sport+. 

     

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com about his new venture, Mathur says, “I will be leading the new initiative as a shareholder and director.”

     

    Mathur will be based out of Delhi NCR.

     

    The new unit will be focussed on three key areas. The company will be involved with rights management in non-cricket sports like football, Formula 1 and tennis amongst others. It will also look at acquiring and managing digital rights of sports. Additionally, ITW Sport+ will also explore third party right management of athletes and sports celebrities in the sports ecosystem.

     

    “The focus will be on representation of football teams in the Indian Super League, various Kabaddi teams and sports consulting too,” informs Mathur. 

     

    Talking about the core thought behind the new initiative, he says, “Currently there is a huge empty space in the sports ecosystem for a large size sports management firm. There are many players who are doing smaller chunks of business but there is no large consolidated player. We want to change that element and are going to occupying that space.”

     

    As far a cricket is concerned, Mathur informs that ITW already has its presence there as it looks after most of the bilateral cricketing series rights.

     

    ITW, as a sports management company, specializes in consulting in sports rights acquisition and negotiation, licensing, concept development, in stadia branding among others. It also holds rights for international cricket.

     

    At Nimbus, Mathur was responsible for several key deals. These include bagging a XOLO (Lava Smartphone) for the EPL club, Liverpool FC and signing of ISL team Atletico De Kolkata with the telco as Aircel as its first principle sponsor.

  • Nimbus Sports and the million dollar deals

    Nimbus Sports and the million dollar deals

    MUMBAI: Many will agree that with new sporting leagues making in-roads in the country in 2014, the business perception towards each of these sports have also changed. The size of ticket sales has swelled up and so has the viewership patterns on TV- at least for a few.  There have also been some interesting million dollar sponsorship deals that sports management companies have been brokering for tournaments and franchises, beyond cricket. One such company is Nimbus Sports which is the sports marketing division of Nimbus Communications.

     

    Nimbus Sport has been involved in managing rights transactions worth over US$ 2 billion to date, claims its website. According to sources, it currently has an extensive golf portfolio worth $3.5 million which includes the Hero National Open. The National Open which will be in its 51st edition in 2015, will be moving towards the European tour for the first time, making it the only European Championship in the South East Asia region.  

     

    The championship will have prize money of $1.5 million. Nimbus has signed the deal with Hero as the title sponsor for three years and is valued at close to $3 million. The tournament will be held from 16 to 22 February 2015. Ten Sports is the broadcaster for the European tour in India. The championship will have 50 global broadcasters delivering 650 plus broadcasts with a combined excess reach of 530 million household across six continents, says a source close to the development.

     

    Other sponsors who have come on board for the Open are international brands like Emirates, Rolex, and EP World through three season deals.  Industry experts peg these deals at quarter million dollar each.

     

    Adding to this is another golf property, the Vodafone Tee Walk. In January 2014, the business arm of Vodafone India, Vodafone Business Services appointed Nimbus Sport to manage the corporate golf series. It was held across four cities and is currently in its sixth edition. To enhance the overall experience, the company introduced mobile apps and swing analysis. The series was telecast on Neo Sports.

     

    For the ongoing Hero Indian Super League, the company was the official representative of commercial negotiations for Atletico de Kolkata. As part of the deal it helped the team gain a principal sponsor with telco Aircel. This deal is pegged at $1 million for a single year with the right to renew it further.

     

    On the international front, early this year, Nimbus claimed to be the first Indian agency to broker an international deal with premier football club, Liverpool FC and XOLO.  This was the clubs first regional marketing partnership in India. According to sports experts, it is a two and a half season deal worth $1 million per year. The deal offered Indian fans to enjoy content from the club on their handsets, merchandise and the chance to meet former and current players from the club.

    Says a brand consultant  who comments on this deal, “XOLO could have partnered with better known club like Manchester United but by partnering with Liverpool it wanted to be seen as a challenger to the existing order.”

     

    Speaking on the nature of such deals, an industry expert on condition of anonymity comments, “These are not just plain vanilla deals but custom made opportunities for brands to invest. The Aircel deal indicates a region wise targeting, as the brand seems to push for a local connect. The landscape clearly is seeing business goals being integrated into better platforms not just for cricket, but other sports which are becoming popular.”

     

    The company plans to work with leagues like Champions Tennis League, International Premier Tennis League and Formula 1 teams in the coming years.  Some of the deals could see bearing fruit by 2015 or 2016. Sources say, it was approached by Pro Kabaddi League teams this year but much could not be done as they were offered a turnaround time of 15 days which was too short. But in the coming years it seeks to tap on the growing ecosystem.

  • Atletico De Kolkata gains a principal sponsor in Aircel

    Atletico De Kolkata gains a principal sponsor in Aircel

    MUMBAI: With the football fever catching up in the country with the Hero Indian Super League (ISL), Kolkata franchise Atletico De Kolkata gained its first principal sponsor in Aircel. Sports management company Nimbus Sport, advised the two companies on their partnership.

     

    Atletico De Kolkata team co owner Sourav Ganguly commented, “It is great to see corporate like Aircel coming forward and showing its commitment towards promoting sports in the country. We are very happy that they are with us now as principal sponsors and I am sure it is just the start of a lasting and rewarding relationship.”

     

    Nimbus Sport COO Sunil Manocha said, “The partnership will be a game changer in the sports marketing landscape in India and represents the first large commercial partnership by a mainstream brand with a football team in India and will usher in a new era of sponsor investments into teams in India. Nimbus has been at the forefront of bringing brands with a vision, closer to the sport and had advised Liverpool FC and Xolo smartphones, on their celebrated partnership earlier this year. As a part of our strategy for sustained focus on football, we are our working on bringing two leading European clubs to India to play friendly matches in the summer of 2015.” 

     

    Aircel chief marketing officer Anupam Vasudev said, “Aircel is a new age brand focusing on youth. Passion, agility, energy and youthfulness are the attributes which define this sport, which are also a part of Aircel’s DNA – being one of the young fastest growing telecom players in India. We are pleased to associate ourselves with Atletico De Kolkata which is the biggest team of ISL with a large dedicated region spanning entire Eastern and Central India and Bangladesh. With Players, Coach, Technical and Brand Integration with La Liga Champions, Atletico De Madrid, we hope ATK will be the frontrunner to win the first edition of ISL.”

     

    The Aircel logo will be used on the front of team jersey and training kits under the current sponsorship arrangements.

     

    RP Sanjiv Goenka group chairman and co-owner Atletico de Kolkata Sanjiv Goenka added, “We are delighted to have Aircel as the principal sponsor for Atletico de Kolkata and welcome them on-board. We look forward to working with them. The decision was made easy as there are definite synergies in our vision for Atletico de Kolkata. This association symbolises a shared dream of creating a successful brand and a world–class franchise.”

     

  • Dainik Bhaskar in alliance with WSH for Bhopal Badshahs

    Dainik Bhaskar in alliance with WSH for Bhopal Badshahs

    MUMBAI: Media house Dainik Bhaskar has entered into a strategic alliance with Bridgestone World Series Hockey.

    In addition, the media behemoth has signed on as the global partner for Bhopal Badshahs.

    DB Corp director Girish Agarwal said “We are thrilled to partner the inaugural Bridgestone World Series Hockey. We see a natural strategic fit in terms of our markets and strong hockey consumption belts in India, Besides, it is also an emotional decision for us to be associated with Bhopal Badshahs as hockey has a strong legacy in this part of India. We plan to leverage this alliance and work with WSH in creating multiple outreach programs in schools and colleges to give the much needed fillip to the sport at the grass root level.”

    Nimbus Sport COO Yannick Colaco said, “We are delighted to welcome one of India’s largest media group, Dainik Bhaskar, as a strong partner for the landmark Bridgestone World Series Hockey. With passionate commitment and tremendous involvement, Dainik Bhaskar will be playing a critical role in promoting and developing the sport in the Hindi heartland. It is a definite win-win partnership.”

    The Bridgestone World Series Hockey will be held from 29 February – 2 April 2012, and will involve 200 players — Indian and international — who will showcase their talent in 59 matches and vie for the biggest prize money hockey tournament in the world.

    The eight venues for the inaugural edition of the league are Bangalore, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Jalandhar, Mumbai and Pune. Chandigarh Comets will face-off against Bhopal Badshahs in the first tie of the tournament on their home ground.

  • Nimbus Sport awards World Series Hockey creative duties to Euro RSCG

    Nimbus Sport awards World Series Hockey creative duties to Euro RSCG

    MUMBAI: Euro RSCG has won the creative business of Nimbus Sport’s World Hockey Series after a multi-agency pitch.

    As a part of the contract, Euro RSCG’s Mumbai office will handle the entire advertising duties of World Series Hockey on a project basis.

    Nimbus Sport COO Yannick Colaco said, “We were impressed with the work Euro RSCG presented to us, right from the first round of presentations. We found them on the same plane as far as understanding our brand and the vision for WSH. We look forward to a mutually beneficial association with them for the entire duration of the series.”

    Track Euro RSCG India managing partner and chief creative officer Satbir Singh added, “Euro‘s creative duties for this project will span 360 degrees across TV, print, digital, activation, outdoor, radio etc. We will work on the tournament‘s pre-launch buzz, match day action with the focus on consumer engagement across the country. I’m looking forward to working on this project, especially since I have been a hockey player myself. I see a lot of scope to do a lot of good, quality creative work on this brand.”

    Euro RSCG India president West and South Shavon Barua said, “Sports is an extremely dynamic, fast-paced category to work on, especially from an agency’s perspective. This prestigious project also gives us a chance to bring India’s national sport in the limelight it deserves. We look forward to doing some great work for the series.”

    Scheduled to begin on 17 December, the series will be spread over 61 matches and will culminate on 22 January 2012.

  • Nimbus Sport scouts for creative agency for World Series Hockey

    Nimbus Sport scouts for creative agency for World Series Hockey

    MUMBAI: Nimbus Sport has called for pitches from creative agencies regarding conceptualising and running a campaign for its World Series Hockey initiative.

    Nimbus Sport COO Yannick Colaco said that the decision would be taken in two to three weeks regarding the winning agency. “The brief given is that the communication plan should be about building a national hockey brand,” he said.
     
    As had been reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com Nimbus Sport has already started a digital campaign with the launch of a site. The event also has a presence on Facebook.

    “The marketing budget is worth millions of dollars,” said Colaco.

  • ‘Cricket needs to evolve’

    ‘Cricket needs to evolve’

    If there was one person who brought about the biggest change in sports broadcasting in India in 2006, it was Nimbus chairman Harish Thawani. He took the big gamble by acquiring India cricket rights for a whopping $612.8 million and became a broadcaster.

    Thawani holds forth on sports broadcasting in terms of the changing landscape, Asia emerging as a major player and the importance of multiplicity of platforms and technologies.

    Traditionally the sports media industry has had 3 major segments: full service sports management/marketing agencies (such as IMG, Sport Five, Nimbus Sport) that manage/market rights, sponsorship sales, stage/manage events, provide sponsor services, advise on and/or manage L & M programs, represent athletes etc (many agencies specialize in a sub-set of these); sports television companies that focus on host broadcast production and/or sports program production and syndication (such as Sunset + Vine, TWI, HBS, Nimbus Sport) and sports broadcasters (such as ESPN, Fox Sports, Sky Sports, NEO Sports).

    Two trends seem to be emerging in the sports media sector. On one hand there appears to consolidation taking place in both the agency and broadcast sector (more of that later) and on the other hand the lines are getting blurred between the roles with agencies or their parent companies such as Nimbus entering the broadcast sector (with its recently launched NEO Sports) and broadcasters such as ESS pitching for rights on a global basis and consequently winding up acting as rights agencies in countries where they don’t broadcast.

    Consequently the future may see new role definitions, new competitive stances and strange alliances emerging; and quite possibly competitors in one region being partners in another.

    Trends close to home

    The importance of Asia is growing. In football it is now the world’s second most valuable rights territory. In cricket it is by far the most valuable. Japan, Korea, China and the ASEAN are fuelling unprecedented growth in rights values for basketball, golf, motor sport, tennis, even baseball.

    Pan Asian broadcast services are under threat and I think in 3 years will become unviable, as the regional broadcasters gain ground. The rise of the regional broadcasters and/or platform owned sports channels (from Al Jazeera in the Middle East to NEO Sports in South Asia to Astro’s Super Sports in Malaysia, to PCCW in Hong Kong and Starhub’s Super Sports in Singapore) have encouraged rights holders to stop doing pan Asian deals and opt for country wise deals. The success of the recent EPL auctions on a country wise basis was an example, where ESS lost a substantial portion of the valuable territories to regional broadcasters including China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and several others.

    Multiplicity of platforms and technologies will fetch sports broadcasters in Asia higher share of subscriber revenues. Sports and movies drive pay TV! In the Middle East we have three DTH platforms and three cable companies vying for premium sports channels. In India we have two DTH platforms with two more to come and a very large cable industry, Malaysia’s long standing monopoly of Astro will diminish with Telecom Malaysia’s massive IPTV foray. Hong Kong has two cable systems. Every major country is developing multiple platforms.

    Perhaps in 2-3 years time, we might see a consortium of regional broadcasters emerge, forming a pan Asian footprint but retaining regional autonomy, using the benefits of consortium buying of rights, collective platform negotiation ability, exchange of best practices and technology; and who knows perhaps even cross holdings into an Asian superstructure.

    Global management is now happy to work in Asia thereby giving Asian sports broadcasters the ability to merge local skills into global best practices, and compete with the global broadcasters such as ESPN and Newscorp (Fox, Sky, Star)…for e.g. NEO Sports has a Scottish COO, an Australian head of acquisitions, a Polish technology consultant and an Indian CEO!

    Cricket : The challenges and opportunities

    Cricket needs to evolve. The economic dominance of Asia powered largely by India represents both an opportunity and a threat to the globalization of the sport. Opportunity because the funds now at the disposal of cricket allow it to invest in development across the world. Threat because if the Indian economy slows down or the sports broadcast industry further consolidates, the revenues of the sport will decline. Cricket must reduce its excessive dependency on India. But that is easier said than done.

    The sport is essentially a 10 country sport with only 4-5 countries providing revenues worth the mention. The structure of the sport needs to emulate football and we need to dismantle the class system wherein only 10 countries get to play Tests and regular ODIs. In football even India plays internationals despite being ranked below 125! Cricket needs to allow all ICC member countries to play internationals. With the emergence of shorter formats (which itself are the way to the future of the game), like 20/20, it is easier for weaker teams to win against stronger teams occasionally because all that it takes is for 1-2 batsmen to fire for an hour or so!! Such results fuel fan following and the sports grows in new countries.

    Lastly cricket needs to understand that its obsessive focus only on revenues (read highest bidder wins!) is perhaps an expensive trade off as the interests of the highest bidder are not necessarily aligned to that of the sport. E.g. broadcasters that win global rights are not necessarily equipped or even wanting to encourage free TV broadcasts or multiple platform broadcasts for their interests lie in exclusivity and the subscription revenues that come with it. Fortunately many cricket boards have begun to understand that and now prefer to engage sports agencies (albeit with a revenue MG) to manage their rights with the mandate to increase revenues but also increase reach, improve branding, procure better sponsorships, develop new markets and assist in development programs through coaching videos etc.

    India : Road ahead is clear

    With economic growth beating the 8 per cent per annum mark and the next 10 years (if not much more) quite clearly a boom phase, there’s seldom been a better time to invest in India. Broadcast industry revenues are growing at 17-19 per cent per annum, spending on leisure including sport by Indians is on the rise, and the advent of addressable systems particularly DTH bodes well for premium pay TV services such as sports and movies.

    India : Cricket domination continues

    Having said that even the world’s largest markets don’t support more than 2-3 pay TV sports companies, which meant that my prediction of some months back that from a 6 player market we will see a 3 player market by 2007 has come true even before 2006 is out. DD and Sony are at least for the moment quite clearly out of the cricket rights acquisition market. Zee has taken control of Ten, so its essentially 3 companies now in sports broadcasting each with 2 channels (Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus, ESPN and Star Sports, Zee Sports and Ten Sports); which should allow all three to operate profitably and given the amazing range of sports product available would give all three enough options to program their channels, except for one catch. The cricket catch.

    In a single sport country, this means that Neo Sports with its powerful cricket assets over the next five years, the depth of sports expertise of Nimbus behind it and powered by Star India’s distribution leadership will have a smooth side. As will ESS with its long standing experience, market franchise and reasonable cricket assets now strengthened by the ICC package. The challenge for ESS will be that in 2007 some if not all of their previous cricket assets start expiring and that means an uncertain path ahead. If renewals are hard to come by, they will have to wait for 2011 when the next World Cup is staged to make a strong come back.

    India: Domestic sport

    I had said in early 2006 that this would be the year of domestic sport in India. Hopefully the numbers bear me out. BCCI commenced 72 days a year of domestic cricket coverage and extensive re-branding and re-formatting. Even with the start-up phase distribution of NEO Sports it rocketed to the No 1 sports channel position in the TAM data in its first week itself with the broadcast of the domestic Challenger Series, with peak TVRs of 9.2 in one match! The Duleep Trophy final achieved peak TVRs of 2.7 on a weekday despite it being a 5 day match format! Zee Sports broadcast of Indian domestic football has also shown consistent results. I think by mid 2007 the ratings of domestic cricket will start rivaling Test match TVRs consistently and weekend One Day matches in the domestic Super League could be the killer app for NEO Sports!

    India: Other Sports

    Hockey is dead. It’s now official. It received a quiet and indecent burial at the recent Asian Games where India did not make it to the semis and no one shed tears.Tennis, golf and motor sport plough on their elitist path into Indian homes that would scarcely know the difference between a birdie and a break-point. I can hear howls of protest from the same elitist benches and to them I would say walk down (as I have) the streets of Jalgaon, Coimbatore, Ajmer or even Hyderabad and ask what a birdie is. The range of cute or crass answers might surprise you.

    That leaves football and to me the dark horse badminton as the 2 sports that India can and I think will develop a TV loyalty to. Football because it has a 3-4 state base, and the western and southern metros are beginning to take up to it (on TV I mean) and also quite simply because it is the true world game. Which is why at NEO Sports it already broadcasts live the Bundesliga and the Italian Serie A.

    And Badminton because it is India’s largest participation sport after cricket. It is extensively played in India and easily understood. It has never been adequately programmed on sports channels and not enough has been done to market it. NEO Sports plans to change both of that starting early 2007.

    India: Sports entertainment

    When Nimbus Sport did the Extraaa Innings production for Sony during the 2003 Cricket World Cup, only Nimbus Sport and Sony believed that merging sport with entertainment will lead to a serious opportunity to build a viewer franchise. It made the purists cringe (and rightfully so) but it raked in the TRPs and the revenues.

    Some months back I had announced that we see sports entertainment as the big hole in the market and NEO Sports Plus will launch a slew of sports entertainment shows by 1st quarter 2007. ESS was quick to follow with its own announcement and the good news is that they’ve already started 2 shows, both of which are showing very promising ratings.

    I think NEO Sports Plus will do 70+ GRPs a week by mid 2007 off the back of sports entertainment and its focus on football and badminton.

    Regulatory

    So now TV is in the PDS, controlled prices et al (sorry administered prices). Is it constitutional? Are world class premium channels to be sacrificed at the altar of populism? These and many other questions will get answered in the coming months. Personally I believe that price caps will not go for at least 6 months, but in the interim a multi tier price cap regime may emerge, with Rs 5 as cap for most channels, Rs 10 as cap for GE and movie channels and Rs 20 for sports channels.

    On anti-siphoning the Supreme Court of India has ruled in the Ten Sports case. Many believe that in India where cable is cheap and DTH is also cheap and covers all cable dark areas, there is no grounds for anti-siphoning regulations. Moreover cable reaches nearly 65 per cent of all TV homes now.

    But if anti-siphoning laws do get enacted, they need to consider some rather serious issues:

    1. Is DD a terrestrial broadcaster or cable/DTH? ODI matches can’t be shared with DD under the guise of it being a public free TV terrestrial broadcaster, and then DD merrily supplies the signal to cable and DTH killing the pay TV business!

    2. A use or lose policy with strict timelines and license fee rationale will need to be adhered to by DD as it is in many countries where antis-siphoning rules are in force.

    3. DD must encrypt its signals to their transmission towers. No where in the world does a free TV broadcaster send unencrypted signals via satellite.

    4. If the anti-siphoning rules are truly meant to for public service, DD must refrain from commercial exploitation of the feed and agree to carry the rights holders feed with commercials. And DD must not decline other sports the right to be broadcast on DD National, when events of global stature and/or Indian interest are being staged.

  • ESS wins South Asia broadcast, mobile & internet rights to EPL soccer

    ESS wins South Asia broadcast, mobile & internet rights to EPL soccer

    MUMBAI: In a bidding battle that finally became a three-horse race, ESPN Star Sports has won exclusive broadcast rights for the Barclays English Premier League (EPL) for the Indian subcontinent for the next three seasons through to 2010.

    Incumbent ESS beat back bids by Zee Sports and Nimbus Sport to secure the EPL rights. Yes TV, which is owned by Malysian firm Astro and had made a pan-Asian bid, withdrew from the bid process in the last round.

    The agreement grants ESS the right to broadcast 370 matches per season throughout India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Mongolia and the Maldives via television, broadband and mobile technologies.

    Commenting on the acquisition, ESS managing director Jamie Davis said: “Our Company has been the catalyst for increasing the popularity of the EPL in India, ordinarily a cricket crazy nation. Our world class studio shows, intensive marketing campaigns, and localisation efforts including the introduction of Hindi commentary have made the EPL a highly watched sports property. We are very excited to continue our efforts to deliver the best of English football to the growing breed of football fans across India and the subcontinent. Our strong relationship with the FA Premier League has been built on our commitment to grow the EPL brand via live matches and over 400 hours annually of original, football programming.”

    Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said: “ESPN Star Sports has indeed played a key role in growing the EPL brand in India. Their commitment to sports and to the EPL specifically gives us the confidence that this is the right partnership for the Premier League. As we move into an age of new media and all the flexibility and possibilities that come with this new technology, we are certain that this relationship will continue to flourish to the benefit of fans across the subcontinent.”

    ESS’ array of original support programming for the EPL includes Nokia Football Crazy, Football Focus, Goals, Tiger FC Locker Room, Here We Go, Tiger First Edition and Football Extra. Over 200 million viewers across Asia tune into the EPL matches and packaged programmes each week. This season’s addition of Club EPL, Paula’s Perfect Ten and Jamie’s Greatest Hits further expands the overall football demographic to target women and youth.

    “Keeping the young fans in mind we plan to enhance our EPL offering on mobileESPN substantially. Football fans can look forward to getting live scores, match schedules, player statistics, contests and much more from mobileESPN going forward,” said Sricharan Iyengar, vice-president, New Media and Marketing, ESPN Software India.

    ESS has also extended its agreement with the FA Premier League to 12 other countries; Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, North Korea, Brunei, The Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Taiwan and Macau. These rights also include television, mobile and internet platforms.

    The lucrative territories where ESS has lost out include Singapore, where pay TV operator Starhub won and Hong Kong which went to PCCW. ESS has also not managed to retain the rights for China and Thailand, which went to Guangdong Soccer channel and UBC respectively.

  • Bangla board clears Nimbus deal after cricket chief quits

    Bangla board clears Nimbus deal after cricket chief quits

    MUMBAI: Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Mohammad Ali Asghar has resigned to clear the way for the government to sign a record television deal with Singapore-headquartered Nimbus Sport.

    As already reported on Indiantelevision.com, the deal, which runs from 1 November 2006 to 31 March 2012 and includes 16 international cricket events, was awarded to Nimbus after it made a whopping $ 56.88 million bid. Nimbus Sport will exclusively market media rights encompassing television, radio, broadband internet and mobile telephony. Nimbus will also produce the television world feed for all the events in the term.

    The official announcement that the Bangladesh board and Nimbus had entered into a partnership for marketing of BCB media rights came a day after Asghar’s resignation.

    Replacing Asghar, a lawmaker of the country’s outgoing ruling party, is senior government official Mohammad Abdul Aziz.

    “I have resigned as the ministry was delaying signing a deal with Nimbus that won a tender for a cricket marketing deal,” Asghar had been quoted by news service Reuters as saying.

    Nimbus will exclusively market media rights encompassing television, radio, broadband internet and mobile telephony. Nimbus Sport will also produce the television world feed for all the events in the term.

    Nimbus’ telecast of Bangladesh cricket begins later this month with a five-match one-day series against Zimbabwe. After that, Bangladesh plays Bermuda and Canada in early 2007 (two ODIs each).

    The full roster of international cricket events the rights encompass include three India tours, and tours by all major test-playing nations including England, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, West Indies and New Zealand. It also includes a number of domestic cricket events, an offical release states.