The Hindu Business Line : Zee moves SC against BCCI decision

THE row between Zee Telefilms and ESPN-Star Sports on Wednesday took a new turn with Zee moving the Supreme Court challenging the cancellation of the telecast rights awarded to it by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) between 2004 and 2008 and to re-open the tender process.

The writ petition filed late in the evening is likely to be mentioned on Thursday for early hearing. Since the BCCI has filed a caveat, it will also be heard along with Zee Telefilms' petition.

The petitioner contended that it had bagged the telecast rights of the matches for $308 million and it had already paid the BCCI $20 million. It said the contract for the telecast rights stood implemented with the payment of $20 million by it to the BCCI and it was fully equipped to cover the India-Australia cricket series starting from October 6.

Zee alleged that there was prior collusion between the BCCI and ESPN-Star Sports, which led to the board's sudden turnaround to cancel the contract on September 21.

It said a concluded contract could not be terminated by the BCCI, which could only reject a tender bid before finalisation of the contract.

ESPN had challenged in the Bombay High Court the award of telecast rights to Zee on the ground that they did not have the requisite two years' experience of covering live cricket matches which was required according to a clause in the tender.

The BCCI sprang a surprise on Tuesday when it informed the court that it had cancelled the contract since Zee had not accepted the letter of intent sent to it by the board on September 8.

The board's suggestion in the court that both Zee and ESPN should offer fresh bids for cricket rights was rejected by Zee and the petition was withdrawn.

This has necessitated Zee to file a writ petition in the Supreme Court challenging the cancellation of the contract.

Zee sought a direction to the BCCI not to grant telecast rights to any other channel before adjudication of the dispute and not to enforce any other contract that might have been concluded.

The Union of India, the BCCI President, Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya, Secretary of BCCI, ESPN-Star Sports and PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt Ltd have been cited as respondents.

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