New Delhi, Debasis Sen: BCCI president Anurag Thakur has again fired a salvo at the ICC chairman Shashank Manohar. Mr Thakur earlier commented that the current ICC chairman has left a sinking ship. According to the BCCI president, his foremost priority is to look at the interest of BCCI and Indian cricket.
“Anyone who was willing to go to the ICC has already left. I have no interest as I am happy with BCCI and nothing is more important to me than India. No individual can come in the way as far as India is concerned as we have to protect the right of India.”
The BCCI president Anurag Thakur announced a tender process for the IPL Global Media Rights in New Delhi on Sunday. The rights period will be for a period of 10 years for television and five years for digital platform.
Terming the bid as historic in the world of cricket, Thakur also revealed that Sony Pictures Network India, the current official broadcaster of IPL, has been invited to participate in the bidding process.
“It gives me immense joy to announce the tender process for IPL Global Media Rights (TV and Digital),” BCCI president Anurag Thakur said during a press conference on Sunday.
The entire process is to keep transparency to the entire bid process. According to the BCCI president, “Anyone who wants to participate can come and do so as we believe in transparency, accountability and professionalism. On the first day we said that and if we look at the reforms in the last 18 months it very clearly suggested we were very open in our reforms. All we want is no one can point a finger at us.”
Currently, the IPL’s media rights are held by Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) a deal that comes to an end after the event’s next edition.
There are different rights on offer for television and digital platform. As well there will be a separate tender for Indian Subcontinent as well as for the Rest of the World or territory groupings starting from 2018-2027 while the tenure is five years for digital rights. The bidders may bid for any combination from the above.
On being asked whether the reforms that the BCCI is carrying are in line with Supreme Courts recent guidelines.
“Let the apex court decide whether our action is right or not in the interest of Indian cricket. BCCI is perhaps the only organisation that has not taken a single penny from the Central or State governments.We have created infrastructures in the country to host cricket matches.We have brought cricket to this level with the help of cricket administrators and cricketers. Now a situation has arrived where there is interference. There is a court order and we have got recommendation from the committee. Reforms is a continuous process in any organisation but you cannot stop your work and say I am not going to work till the court decide on the review petition,” commented Thakur.
The BCCI president also reiterated that they are not in favour of having a two tier system in place for test cricket. According to Mr Thakur, “It will ruin the game if you have that system in place as countries like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe will not get an opportunity to play against bigger opponents like India, Australia and England. We have always stood beside countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. Our endeavor is to see the full members number increased from ten. We want to see Asia becoming stronger.