No telecast, no tour: ACB

The Australian cricket Board has threatened to call off the forthcoming tour to India if the telecast row is not settled. No telecast, no tour, Cricket Australia (CA), the Australian Cricket Board, has told the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The Indo-Australian four-test series starting October 6, 2004, is the first game covered under the four-year telecast rights currently in dispute and being fought in the Bombay High Court.

BCCI President Jagmohan Dalmia confirmed the receipt of a letter from the Australian Cricket Board, but refused to divulge details. Talking to Business Standard from Kolkata over telephone, he said, "the letter has been sumbitted to the Bombay High Court where the case is pending."

The Bombay High Court has been hearing the petition filed by ESPN-Star Sports challenging the BCCI's decision to award the telecast righst to Zee Telefilms for $ 308 million. Sources close to the development said Cricket Australia (CA) has threatened to pull out of the four-Test series against India next month if the matches were not telecast.

They added that CA has asked BCCI to inform the status of the telecast at least a fortnight before the series is slated to begin. Going by the time frame being laid by CA, the BCCI should inform its Australian counterpart about the status of the telecast rights latest by tomorrow (Tuesday). The first test is slated to begin at Bangalore on October 6.

Meanwhile, the Indian cricket board today told the Bombay High Court that it has powers to cancel the tender process as well as call for a fresh bid for telecast of cricket matches and indicated that it may do so in case the legal row between ESPN-Star Sports and Zee Telefilms Ltd is not resolved soon.

The statement was made by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) counsel KK Venugopal, who said the matter needs to be resolved speedily as ACB has threatened to withdraw from the upcoming cricket matches in case the telecast does not take place.

The BCCI counsel passed on the message of the ACB and urged the court that the matter to be resolved expeditiously. However, there is a possibility that even if the court comes out with an early ruling, it will be challenged in higher courts.

The counsel also said to the court that the BCCI has powers to cancel the tender process as well as call for a fresh bid for telecast of cricket matches, indicating that the board might go for fresh bid, if needed.

The BCCI counsel said the clause 3.2, which deals with the eligibility in terms of experience and production capacity, may be done away with and the new tender would just focus on the highest bid.

Sources said the CA's demand for telecast coverage holds ground under the International Cricket Council (ICC) conditions which make it clear that matches cannot be played without television coverage being made available to the third umpire.

They added that the BCCI knew that the issue of telecast rights was a must and therefore began negotiations with another network. The BCCI move was stymied by a court ruling which precluded it from doing another deal until the main matter was resolved.

Australia, the world's number one Test team, is desperate to win the Border-Gavaskar trophy, the only Test title it does not currently hold.