MUMBAI: With cable operators in Mumbai taking a decision to pull the plug on ESPN-Star Sports for three days, the ESPN Software India management has issued a press release expressing its regretting "the decision of a few cable operators, to deprive the cricket loving people of Mumbai of the two on-going triangular series in Australia and South Africa."

The company has also clarified its position on the rate hike: it says that the per subscriber fee for Star Sports was raised by RS 1.51 effectively making the price RS 6.50 per sub effective 1 January 2000. The channel’s management claims that "most of the cable networks in Mumbai, including Hinduja-owned In Cablenet, Siticable, Raheja-owned UCN, Spacevision and Liberty, Seven Star, Channel 3 among others have agreed to or have already paid for the Star Sports service at the new price."

It adds that it is "is unfortunate that with this decision of a few cable operators, viewers in Mumbai are missing out on the India-Australia-Pakistan triangular series from Australia being featured on ESPN and Star Sports, as well as the South Africa-England-Zimbabwe triangular series being featured on Star Sports." Cable operators had last week met up in Mumbai in the presence of a prominent politician and taken a decision to switch off the two channels.