Friday, 14th September 2007

THIS WEEK

Sun, 16th Sep 2007
WWE: Unforgiven: Memphis
AVP Crocs Tour 2007: Final Day – San Francisco Best of the Beach


SPORTS SHORTS

* Organisers of hockey’s Samsung Champions Trophy have confirmed the event will be switched from Pakistan after violent clashes in Pakistan followed the collapse of talks between the Pakistani government and Islamic militants. The event was to be held in Lahore in December. International Hockey Federation (FIH) president Els van Breda Vriesman said: “We tried everything we could to keep the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. This was impossible due to circumstances not related to hockey and completely beyond the control of the FIH and the Pakistan Hockey Federation." Among the venues being considered as an alternative are India and Malaysia. Source: Sport Business, Sports e-Media, 13th Sep 2007


MORE NEWS

Elsewhere/General: IEC Launches Badminton Television Website

IEC in Sports, the Stockholm-based sports agency, is to launch the first badminton-dedicated online television channel. World of Badminton (www.WOB.tv) will stream live and archive footage of tournaments, including the BWF Super Series and BWF Grand Prix tournaments, as well as the bi-weekly World of Badminton programme.

Jonas Persson, the chief executive of IEC Sports, said: ‘By launching WOB.tv, IEC in Sports makes a further commitment to take the sport into the 160 countries, where badminton is not regularly scheduled on television. ‘Also to nations where the hunger to follow players and their best matches is immensely strong. ‘This IEC investment in digital media also offers a possible template for other sports.’

Live action will get under way with the Yonex Japan Open on Saturday in a limited number of countries. Geo-blocking will be used to avoid a conflict with media groups which have been granted rights. IEC handles the broadcasting rights for the Asian Badminton Championships and the European Badminton Championships. Source: Sportcal, 13th Sep 2007

Indonesia/Rights: Astro to Sell Premier League Rights to Other Indonesian Broadcasters

Astro, the pay-television satellite broadcaster, has promised to respond to calls from the Indonesian government to share rights to English soccer’s top-tier Premier League with local free-to-air broadcasters. The broadcaster is to make certain packages available to other stations after ‘passing the request from the Indonesian government to rights holder ESPN Star Sports [the pan-Asian sports broadcaster] through Astro Malaysia.’ The package will include one live match per week, delayed games, match highlights and analysis programmes.

Astro, which operates in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, won the rights to broadcast all 370 Premier League games from the 2007-08 season onwards after commercial television networks were priced out of the market. The Indonesian government said last week that broadcasting rights to the English top flight ‘should not be monopolised by a single party.’ The government has set a deadline of tomorrow for Astro and ESPN Star Sports to finalise the packages. Trans7, the commercial station, previously broadcast live Premier League games free of charge to over 230 million homes.

Halim Mahfudz, Astro’s corporate affairs vice-president, has warned that Astro would not hand the rights out for free and Erwin Darwis Purba, the company's legal senior vice president, insists that Astro has not done anything illegal in snapping up extensive rights to the English Premier League, saying that it ‘was not practicing a monopoly.' Source: Sportcal, 13th Sep 2007

India/General: Teams from Four Nations to Compete in Twenty20 Champions League

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has unveiled plans for an international Twenty20 competition, which will bring together top teams in the shortened version of the game from four leading countries. The first T20 Champions League will take place in India in October 2008 and feature the finalists from a new domestic Twenty20 competition and the existing ones in England, Australia and South Africa. A prize fund of $5 million will be on offer, with $2 million going to the winners, and the project has the support of the cricket boards in the other three countries.

The BCCI is launching its own national Twenty20 competition called the Indian Premier League, which will decide the country’s representatives in the Champions League. The international competition could be expanded in future years to include top teams from other test-playing countries. The BCCI hopes that the IPL, due to start in April of next year, will supersede the Indian Cricket League, an unofficial venture, which begins operations with a Twenty20 tournament in October and November.

It is thought that Australian stars Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, both of whom have now retired from international cricket, could be invited to take part in the BCCI’s league, which will involve eight franchise teams and offer prize money of $3 million.

Lalit Modi, the BCCI vice-president, said: 'The Indian Premier League has been designed to entice an entire new generation of sports fans into the grounds throughout the country. 'The dynamic Twenty20 format has been designed to attract a young fan base, which also includes women and children. He also explained the franchise system, saying: 'These franchisees will get marketing rights and also a share in the centralised revenue, which is yet to be decided. They will also be entitled to local revenue like ticket sales. Each franchisee will get one home ground and will have to commit to building stadiums at their base.'

Although popular in England, Australia and South Africa, Twenty20 has been slow to develop in India. The process has been accelerated with the introduction of a world championship, the first of which is taking place in South Africa at the moment. The BCCI has refused to sanction the ICL, which is backed by Essel Group, the owner of Indian media group Zee Telefilms, threatening to ban players who sign up from representing the national team or turning out in official competitions. The ICL claims it has now recruited 84 domestic and foreign players, including former West Indies captain Brian Lara, and Pakistan stars Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mohammed Yousuf. Source: Sportcal, Sport Business, 13th Sep 2007

Elsewhere/Broadcaster: Sportfive Channel to Challenge Premiere's Bundesliga Supremacy

Sportfive, the international sports marketing firm, is to bid for rights to German soccer’s top-tier Bundesliga from 2009 after launching its own sports television channel. Sportfive revealed its intention to bid yesterday, when it was confirmed that Sportdigital.tv, the agency's internet portal, is to be offered via satellite television as a result of an agreement with operator SES Astra. The Bundesliga has been keen to generate wider interest in the rights after the withdrawal of Arena, the pay-television channel, left cable and satellite rival Premiere as the prime candidate.

Lars Reckwitz, the Sportfive manager, said, ‘We have ten Bundesliga clubs under contract and are therefore interested in doing something about the monopoly in the German broadcast industry.' He added that it was 'clear' that they would bid for the rights. Having sealed the deal with SES Astra, Sportfive is also looking to make Sportdigital.tv available via digital cable platforms.

However, its latest moves have come as a surprise in the German market given that Arena struggled to establish a successful pay-television alternative to Premiere. Arena originally won the live rights to the Bundesliga for three years, starting with the 2006-07 season, after agreeing a deal worth €240 million ($333 million) a year, but has now sub-licensed them to Premiere for €100-million a year. The German Football League is expected to issue a tender for the rights from 2009-10 onwards at the end of this year. Source: Sportcal, 13th Sep 2007


ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS

Everything You Wanted to Know About the ICL
FAQ on Cricinfo.com, 13th Sep 2007

What is the Indian Cricket League?
The Indian Cricket League (ICL) is a cricket league set to run in parallel with BCCI-run tournaments in India. Contrary to common perception, the ICL is not a breakaway league but an entirely new entity.

How did the ICL come about?
The roots of the ICL lies in the same issue as those of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket: discontent over TV rights. The Essel Group¹s Zee TV believed it got a raw deal in the allocation of Indian cricket¹s TV rights last time around, when despite making the highest bid, Zee was denied the rights for want of experience in sport broadcasting. The ICL is a joint venture between the Essel Group and Infrastructure Leasing & Finance Services (IL&FS), and is seen by many as Essel head Subhash Chandra Goel's attempt to get back at the BCCI. On April 3, 2007 the Essel Group announced the league, saying that the BCCI had failed to create "a reserve pipeline of players", and that the idea behind the league was to create an "ideal pool with killing instinct". They were quick to add that the ICL was not in conflict with the BCCI, and the board would be free to draw from the ICL's talent pool.

What is the Essel Group?
Essel is one of India's leading business houses, with interests in media, packaging, entertainment, education, and infrastructure development among other areas. It had an estimated turnover of $2.1 billion for the last financial year. Zee TV, with a range of specialist channels - news to entertainment to sport - has a strong presence in the Indian electronic media market, and Dainik Bhaskar is the largest-read Hindi newspaper in the country. How is the ICL different from other leagues, like, say, the Kanga League?
Unlike other leagues that are run or funded by the BCCI or other parties, the ICL involves television coverage, which is the BCCI¹s main source of revenue.

Who will play in the league?
The initial idea was to have six teams, each consisting of four overseas players, two Indian internationals, and eight juniors. What the ICL with the help of its talent scouts - Balwinder Sandhu, Pranab Roy, Erapalli Prasanna, Bharat Reddy, and Rajesh Chauhan - has managed to assemble is a cadre composed of overseas player who have either retired from international cricket or are disgruntled with their respective boards, sidelined Indian internationals who have little hope of making it back into the national team, and domestic players, most of whom are nowhere close to national selection. Regardless of when the first ICL tournament gets underway, it will inevitably clash with the Indian national team¹s schedule. The biggest draws for the ICL at present are Brian Lara, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Imran Farhat, Abdul Razzaq, Lance Klusener, Nicky Boje, Damien Martyn, Deep Dasgupta, and Dinesh Mongia.

What is the lure for players to join the ICL?
Although there are no official figures, it is speculated that on the lower end of the scale a player stands to earn as much as Rs 30 lakh ($72,600 approximately) a year, irrespective of how many matches he plays. As of last year, a domestic cricketer in India earned about 40 per cent of that if he figured in every match his team played in a season. The ICL's fees for ex-internationals are said to be substantially higher. The league has promised $1 million in prize money in the first season, half of which is to go to the champion team. The Ranji Trophy champions last season took away Rs 50 lakh ($124,000) by comparison. Essel has promised to invest Rs 100 crore ($23 million approximately) to start with. It also claims it will look after the players better than the BCCI does and provide them job security.

What is the format of the tournament?
In the inaugural year, the six ICL teams will play a 40-day Twenty20 tournament on a home-and-away league basis. In the coming years the number of teams is set to go up to 16, and there is also to be a 50-overs tournament.

When will the games be played?
This has either not been decided yet, or not revealed. It is believed the games will be played in October, which means they will clash with the start of one of India's biggest home seasons in recent times, which comprises a seven-match ODI series against Australia, followed by a tour by Pakistan. India go to Australia after these two series, which means that, regardless of when the ICL gets underway, it will inevitably clash with the Indian national team¹s schedule.

Where will they play?
The answer is primarily the same as the above. Because the actual format of the Twenty20 tournament is not known, the requirement of stadiums is not either. The ICL has identified a ground for the players to train at, though: Mayajaal, just outside Chennai, which is a part of an entertainment complex. The presence of four Pakistani players in the ICL rules out the use of the premises of the Essel Group's amusement complex Essel World on the outskirts of Mumbai. In the past the government has failed, in the wake of threats by the Shiv Sena political party, to guarantee security to Pakistani teams scheduled to play in Mumbai. Pakistan last played a Test in Mumbai in 1979 and an ICC-recognised match in 1989. The West Bengal sports minister has provided the ICL a window of opportunity, saying that their government will be open to allowing the ICL use of Eden Gardens, which is owned by the government, and whose lease with the state cricket association is about to expire.

What is the standing of the ICL in international cricket?
The BCCI has not recognised the league, in consequence to which the ICC has refused to recognise it. The boards of Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and Pakistan have also threatened to ban those of their players who join the ICL. Indian players, current or former, who associate with the ICL in any capacity have been barred from availing any BCCI benefits - which also implies they will not be eligible for selection to the national team. The ICL, though, has moved court, contesting the BCCI's right to represent "India".

What happens to Indian players who have jobs with public-sector undertakings (PSUs)?
As many of the players are employed with PSUs like Air India and IndianOil Corporation for the sole purpose of playing club cricket, there was a fear that all of them would be dismissed because they would no longer be able to play cricket for their employers. The Delhi High Court intervened here, asking the PSUs to not dismiss their employees just because they had joined the ICL. The PSUs, though, have the option to not grant the players leave for playing cricket.

Where does the ICL go from here?
The first tournament is much awaited, not so much because it promises to be a competitive spectacle but because the odds are stacked heavily against its staging. To help the ICL's cause, the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission's (MRTPC) investigative wing is looking into the BCCI¹s refusal to share infrastructure with the ICL. If the courts conclude that the BCCI is indulging in monopolistic practices, they can intervene, much like they did when they fined the board for barring players from writing for newspapers and magazines. The coming months promise to be interesting, not necessarily in purely cricketing terms.