Indian cricket: Court ask BCCI for ZEE rejection

The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Indian cricket board to detail the reasons for finding ZEE Telefilms ineligible for telecast rights, instead of just stating the media company did not conform to the bidding criteria.

In an interim order passed today, a Delhi HC Division Bench of Justice M K Sharma and Justice B N Chaturvedi directed the cricket board not to open the financial bids till the case is disposed of.

The court also questioned the decision of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to award the telecast rights of matches against Sri Lanka and South Africa to pubcaster Doordarshan on an interim basis, but allowed the telecast on the pubcaster?s network.

However, BCCI has been told to maintain separate accounts for the series against Lanka and South Africa and file an affidavit detailing all reasons for finding ZEE Telefilms ineligible.

The court?s observations came during a hearing on a petition filed by ZEE Telefilms that the BCCI had set conditions in such a way that it would keep Indian companies like ZEE out of the bidding process.

The petitioner had sought a stay on BCCI awarding rights to anybody else till the case was disposed off. The prayer, however, was not granted by the Delhi HC.

On 20th October, BCCI had submitted to the court that after opening the technical bids it was found that ZEE?s proposal had certain lacunae that made it ineligible to bid for domestic cricket, which are up for grabs.

BCCI has also been directed not to enter into any interim telecast contracts till 12th December when the next hearing of the case will take place.

Report from IndianTelevision