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He said the live telecast would be subject to any order passed
by the Supreme Court, where a matter is pending in this regard.
An interesting aside to this fresh twist in the tale is that the
Supreme Court willing, the two companies that had logged the lowest
bids for the India cricket rights (Sony Entertainment at $ 140 million
and Ten Sports at $ 115 million) could between them well be managing
telecast for the upcoming series.
JUDGES APPEAR UNCONVINCED OVER GOVERNMENT'S STANCE
Meanwhile, arguments continued today for the fourth day on whether
a Zee Telefilms petition challenging cancellation of a tendering
process by the BCCI is maintainable or not and whether the cricket
board can be termed a 'state'. The only thing that was clear though
after four days of hearings, is that the battle is getting more
bitter by the day.
The government today came out even more strongly in support of
Zee, going so far as to say it is ready to derecognise the BCCI.
However, even as additional solicitor general Mohan Parasharan
submitted before the five-judge constitution bench that the government
exercised various controls over the country's top sports bodies,
including BCCI, the court appeared unconvinced. "Most of your
arguments fail when you have no material to show that you have ever
granted recognition to BCCI as an apex body in the field of cricket,"
the Press Trust of India has quoted the Bench as saying.
Parasharan then said that even though BCCI was not a public authority
it was performing a public function and hence its actions were subject
to judicial review.
Speaking for the BCCI, counsel and senior advocate KK Venugopal
went so far as to say: "If India plays England, it is a match
played by the official team of BCCI and not the official team of
India."
"We do not even fly the national flag nor use any national
emblem in the activities of the board," PTI quoted Venugopal
as saying. Venugopal said India as a country was not represented
at the International Cricket Council (ICC) and that the Board uses
its own flag.
DALMIYA AS PATRON-IN-CHIEF: MADRAS HIGH COURT TO HEAR CASE FRIDAY
It has not been all hunky-dory for Dalmiya however. While he has
managed the the installation of his man Mahendra as the next president
of the BCCI, one part of the script which was to have seen him take
charge tomorrow as the board's patron-in-chief, and importantly
its permanent representative to the ICC, remains on hold.
The Madras High Court today refused to interfere with a Chennai
court order restraining till 11 October the BCCI's confirming the
appointment of Dalmiya as patron-in-chief of the world's richest
cricket board. The case will come up for hearing again in the high
court tomorrow. Dalmiya was appointed the first ever patron-in-chief
of the BCCI at a special meeting on 12 September and the board was
to have ratified it today.
The "ratification meeting" has now been postponed to
26 October by which time the board is hoping that this legal irritant
is out of the way.
On another "anti-Dalmiya" front, D Agashe of Maharashtra
Cricket Association, whose disqualification yesterday led to the
defeat of Pawar by a single vote 16-15, has said he is contemplating
moving the court. 'I am taking legal opinion in the matter and if
I am advised so then I will move court,' Agashe was quoted in the
media as saying.
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