The International Cricket Council has paved the way for securing a billion-dollar marketing deal after ending a long dispute with its commercial powerhouse India, officials said on Tuesday.
The board of control for cricket in India (BCCI) not only agreed to sign up with the ICC for major events for the next eight years but also withdrew a controversial move to bid for the sport’s global TV and marketing rights.
”We will sign the members participation agreement (MPA) now because the ICC has addressed our concerns,” BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said on Tuesday.
”We have also told the ICC that we will not bid for the global TV rights for the next eight years.”
The BCCI had initially declined to sign the MPA in its earlier form after objecting to the clauses which prevented its players from endorsing products that were rivals of the ICC’s official sponsors.
Officials, however, refused to reveal which clauses the ICC had agreed to amend in India’s favour.
If the BCCI had not signed up, India would have been prevented from playing in ICC events like the World Cup and Champions Trophy till 2015, a huge blow to the ICC which relies on India for almost 70% of revenues.
Officials said the deal with India was worked out at the two-day meeting of the ICC’s decision-making Executive Board in Mumbai last week on the sidelines of the Champions Trophy.
The ICC confirmed that differences with India had been resolved.
”The executive board achieved a successful resolution of the outstanding issues involving the MPA with the BCCI,” the ICC said in a statement.
”Additionally the BCCI has agreed to withdraw its bid for the broadcast rights for ICC events from 2007-2015 after a legal opinion that indicated it would be a conflict of interest.”
The ICC’s current $550-million deal for seven years with Global Cricket Corporation, a venture owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News International, expires after the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean.
The new deal till 2015 covers 18 ICC tournaments, including two World Cups, three Champions Trophies and the first two Twenty20 world championships.
The deal, likely to be finalised this month, is expected to fetch the ICC over $1-billion.
The BCCI, one of the richest cricket boards in the world, secured a whopping $612-million for its own marketing rights for the next four years from Mumbai-based Nimbus Corporation.
Five of the ICC’s six official sponsors advertise mainly in India whose large cricket-loving population is a sponsors’ dream.
India is due to host the 2011 World Cup — which forms part of the new agreement — jointly with its South Asian neighbours Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The 2015 World Cup will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
The ICC last month began meetings with 22 broadcast and media agencies for the sale of rights from late 2007 to 2015.
ICC president Percy Sonn on Tuesday praised India for what he called the ”outstanding” conduct of the Champions Trophy, which ended on Sunday when Australia beat the West Indies in the final in Mumbai.
”On behalf of the ICC I would like to thank the BCCI for hosting an outstanding Champions Trophy,” Sonn, a South African lawyer, said in a statement.
”I think we leave India with a host of new friends and a new sense of unity of purpose between the BCCI and the ICC and that has to be great for both parties and the sport in general.” – Sapa-AFP