With millions at stake, IPL is no longer just a game of cricket; it is a part of big corporate game plan. Involvement of millions of corporate investment, hunts for more sponsorship, and target for more revenues - Indian Premier League in its second edition looks more like a corporate war than a Twenty-20 tournament. The Indian spectators would have never come to know how expensive our IPL is, had there been no breaking out of the BCCI-Sony war! Initially, Indian Premier League has sold the multi-media rights for $918 million for a period of 10 years to the sports marketing giant, World Sports Group. With Sony in the row with Indian cricket Board, the contract for the upcoming cricket tournament may revert back to WSG.

Sony has already lost its CEO to the BCCI-Sony fiasco over broadcasting rights. Much depends on how the events take turn in the next few days---does BCCI terminate the deal with MSM, or are we to watch the upcoming cricket tournament on some other channel! The Singapore based WSG brought the right from BCCI for a period of 10 years; from that span took off a 5 year’s chunk and doled it out to MSM, present corporate identity for Sony. Jointly, these two entertainment giants have already spent $108 million on the promotional and now WSG will have to hunt for a new buyer, in case MSM fails to wrap it up with Indian cricket Board.

So where does WSG go from here? It will look for possible buyers in other sports channels as ESPN-Star Sports, Ten Sports and Nimbus Communications. Subject to BCCI’s clearance, one of these channels will get the much coveted Indian Premier League rights in its second edition. The legal experts on the three sides of the table are in the middle of a process to work out a solution to the stalemate that threatens to plague the Indian domestic cricket’s biggest show, just one month and few days away.

It has all started with Big TV calling off the Indian Premier League deal with Indian Cricket Board in the aftermath of MSM-Airtel tie up. An infuriated BCCI asked MSM to cough up Rs 137 crores in compensation or quit. Meanwhile, Indian audience is eagerly waiting for the turn of events in the next few days; After all they have to stay tuned to the right channel to watch out the million dollar extravaganza on their television screen on the days they can not make it out to the stadium.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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