MUMBAI: Sports broadcaster Ten Sports, which holds the rights to international cricket played in Pakistan, has evinced interest in televising Pakistan Cricket Board?s yet-to-be launched Twenty20 franchise based league.

Harish Thawani-promoted Nimbus Sport is also reported to have given a presentation to the PCB chairman and other senior officials last week on the Twenty20 league.

According to reports, Nimbus is interested in just organising the league for a fee but has not shown interest in procuring rights for the event.

Besides, Ten and Nimbus another international sports marketing agency is believed to have shown interest on the league.

"At the presentations most of those people who gave presentations made it clear that finances needed to be generated from the Indian and other markets to sustain such a major league including the franchises," newswire PTI quotes a saource as saying.

The PCB is hoping to get a price of around $4 to 4.5 million for a franchise which is expected to be held in October.

"Basically they also see October as the ideal time to launch the PPL as the ICC has kept a window open for the Champions League tournament as well and foreign players could be available as well," the source said.

"The biggest issue for the PCB is not just finances for the event but also security issues as they are keen to ensure the league launches with the participation of foreign players," the source added.

MUMBAI: The role of the International Cricket Council (ICC) president will be reformed after the Annual Conference in 2014 to separate the Chairman of the Board position from that of the ICC President.

Until then, the current roles for the ICC President and Vice president will remain, after which the Vice-Presidency will cease to exist and a new Chairman of the Board post created.

The term of office for the new ceremonial role for the President will be one year and will rotate, as it currently does, amongst the Members. The President will not be a voting member of the Board.

The Chairman, who will be appointed by the Board for a maximum of six years (3 x two year terms), will also be non-voting.

Until the President?s role has been confirmed, the joint nomination of the Bangladesh Cricket Board and Pakistan Cricket Board for the role of vice president 2012-14 was deferred until the amended Articles have been considered by ICC Annual Conference.

The ICC executive board held the second of its scheduled 2012 meetings in Dubai this weekend. The Nominations Committee reported that they have arrived at a shortlist of four candidates who will be interviewed in due course to replace Haroon Lorgat, the current ICC CEP, who vacates his position at the end of the Annual Conference in June 2012.

In relation to the post of Chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee, the ICC Board decided to review the current terms of appointment. This review will cover potential remuneration and also the current restraints on the chairman in relation to media roles.

In the meantime, Clive Lloyd, whose term as chairman had recently expired, will be requested to continue until the ICC Annual Conference in June.

The Board also ratified the following appointments from the Chief Executives? Committee (CEC):

? Re-appoint Clare Connor, the current chairperson of the ICC Women?s Committee, for a second three-year term;

? Re-appoint Ravi Shastri for a second three-year term representing the media;

? Appoint New Zealand Cricket CEO David White as the CEC representative; and

? Appoint John Stephenson as MCC?s representative.

Twenty20 strategy: The ICC Board received a report of the strategic discussions held at the Chief Executive?s Committee (CEC) in March 2012 and confirmed the following recommendations:

? to increase, from 2014 onwards, the number of teams participating in the ICC World T20 from 12 to 16 men?s teams;

? the event should remain a joint men?s and women?s event;

? three additional Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) may be played in the year in which the ICC World Twenty20 is being staged provided there is a corresponding reduction in the maximum number of permitted ODIs (as per ICC Scheduling guidelines-the current regulations permit a maximum of 12 T20Is for each Full Member in any one year).

ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat said, ?The need to manage volume of cricket was considered when agreeing to allow the additional T20Is to be played in a year.?

The Board confirmed the hosting for the ICC World Twenty20 2014 qualifying tournament in the United Arab Emirates in October 2013 and the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 qualifying event in New Zealand in 2014.

The ICC has already commenced with planning for its new rights cycle post 2015 and a key prerequisite of this is to determine the ICC events that will be staged. The Board has agreed the following events schedule:

MUMBAI: The global sale of tickets for the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20 2012 Sri Lanka has begun with demand expected to be high for the first ICC World Twenty20 to be held in Asia.

A maximum of four tickets can be purchased by each person for the super eights, semi-finals and finals, and a maximum of six tickets per person for the rest of the matches.

Online booking of tickets will be available by logging onto www.icc-cricket.com, and buyers must produce a receipt confirming their purchase to redeem their match ticket at the box office. Ticket collection will take place from 1 August.

Prices starting at $0.25 for the single group games and the final itself has tickets ranging from $2.50 - $45.

Attendance at the ICC Women?s World Twenty20 during the group stages in Galle will be free of charge. The women?s semi-finals and final will be played on the same day on the same ground as the men?s and will be covered by the same ticket.

MUMBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced that the last three days of the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier UAE 2012 will be shown live by ESPN Star Sports. This is the first time that there will be live broadcast of an ICC Development event online and on television to a global audience.

Six matches from 22-24 March will be shown live from the Dubai International Cricket Stadium online at www.espnstar.com/live. The ICC has also secured live television coverage of these games into key territories via ESPN Star Sports and its licensees around the globe. A full broadcast list will be circulated at a later date.

This will be the first time that an ICC Development event, featuring only the Associate and Affiliate Members, will be shown on a live global television broadcast.

The ICC said this represents a breakthrough to expose cricket outside the traditional Test playing countries and, aligned with the ICC?s Strategic Plan, is an important step in promoting cricket to become a bigger, better global game.

The ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier UAE 2012 is a 16-team global event that will be played in the UAE from 13-24 March. The top two sides will progress to the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012, to be staged in Colombo, Hambantota and Pallekele from 18 September to 7 October, where they will have the potential opportunity to face Australia, England, India and West Indies.

Among the six live matches that will be broadcast from the Dubai International Cricket Stadium are the first qualifying final, the preliminary final, the second qualifying final and the overall event final.

ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat said, "We are delighted that the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier UAE 2012 can be watched live on television and online broadcast. We would like to thank our broadcast partner, ESPN STAR Sports, and our licensees for their splendid commitment to help us grow the game across the world and for their recognition of the growing interest in the sport outside of the Test playing world. This is an important part of our global strategy."

ESS senior VP, corporate development and cricket rights Anurag Dahiya said, "We are pleased to be working with the ICC to ensure that six matches from this important qualification tournament are shown across the world via our digital platform espnstar.com. We have already seen through our broadcast of recent ICC events, how well the likes of Afghanistan and Ireland have competed against some of the best players in the world, so it will be exciting to see these teams battle it out with some of the other leading Associate and Affiliate teams and allow our viewers to watch matches between nations that they may have never seen play cricket before."

MUMBAI: The newly-appointed chief executive officer of Cricket Holdings America LLC (CHALLC) Keith Wyness believes the organisation?s foundations will help turn the dream of bringing world-class cricket to the United States of America (USA) into a reality.

The dream has remained just that for many years despite the country being able to boast substantial interest in the sport. But Wyness said the framework that CHALLC has put in place will help ensure the venture will succeed where past efforts have failed.

Wyness said, ?We have been able to look properly at getting the correct permissions. We have involved the ICC (International Cricket Council) right from the start, we have got the Full Member involvement of New Zealand and we are working with USACA (the United States of America Cricket Association).

?So we have got it right in terms of the right pyramid of cricket authorities and that makes a fundamental difference to everything that has gone before. With that, we are able to sit back and plan properly and strategically to make sure we get everything in the right place.?

Crickey Holdings America is a joint venture between New Zealand Cricket (NZC) and the USACA for the development of cricket within the USA.

Wyness, formerly the CEO of two Premier League football clubs, Everton in England and Aberdeen in Scotland, worked on the Sydney Olympic Games of 2000 and has for over a decade been living and working in the USA. He will be responsible for the delivery of a business plan which will include the sale of Twenty20 franchises for a professional league set to begin next year.

?At present we are looking at a target date of starting games in the summer of 2013. We will certainly have lead-up events through 2012 and that will give us (the chance) to introduce the game and give people (the opportunity to get) more understanding of what we are trying to achieve," Wyness said.

Twenty20 is the format that has been identified to push the visibility and penetration of cricket in the US. ?However, we will also be supporting other forms of the game if there is a need and desire (for them) as we move forward,? said Wyness.

Wyness played down suggestions that governance issues within the administration of the game within the USA could potentially hamper attempts to develop the sport.

?There are always going to be debates and different points of view and I do not see anything unusual in that at this time of the lifecycle of a sport. As we move forward with Cricket Holdings America and we can show there can be major penetration (of the game within the USA), those differing opinions will become things of the past and everyone is going to move forward towards getting the best interests of cricket promoted in the best possible way," he said.