Money power has started ruling in the world of cricket. After all, it is the Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe series that has been postponed and there are no playing reasons for it to be postponed. The broadcaster who has done this is Ten Sports, and the reason for postponement of the match is also ludicrous to say the least.

Ten Sports requested the authorities in both the boards postpone it because it had also committed to showing the South Africa-Australia and West Indies-England series during the time the matches between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe have been scheduled. Therefore, Ten Sports had requested both the boards to postpone the tour by a couple of months. Both, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe have agreed to postpone their one-day series next month.

Zimbabwe Cricket managing director Ozias Bvute and his Sri Lanka counterpart Duleep Mendis reached the agreement during the ICC chief executives' meeting earlier this week. Zimbabwe was due to play a tour match and five ODIs in Colombo, the first scheduled for March 13. The series is likely to be re-arranged for, later this year.

The moot point and the issue that needs to be pondered here is that the itineraries are fixed by the ICC on a calendar year basis and after the schedules have been fixed then the matches are opened up for bidding for telecast rights. They are not bid for in vacuum. From this perspective, it seems somewhat out of place to understand how this confusion emanated that the teams are playing simultaneously and the matches have been postponed. It can only happens as the broadcaster who has bid for all the matches is the same and it would not be interested to augment additional resources for telecasting match between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. As it is, this tournament is of a kind that would not be a commercially profitable venture, and if Ten Sports had to arrange for its broadcast simultaneously, it would have to literally stretch its resources.

In the present times when the incomes of the boards also come from the revenue that the telecasting companies generate, it may not be a good omen, as these companies can dictate terms about the schedule of the matches.

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

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