MUMBAI: The officials from Indian and Pakistani cricket boards have zeroed in on England as the alternate venue to host India?s return tour to Pakistan since the South Asian nation has become a no-go zone for cricketing nations after the Sri Lankan team was attacked in Lahore.

India was expected to tour Pakistan in early 2009. However, the bi-lateral series came to nought due to 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai which had the blessing of elements in the Pakistani establishment.

However, after years of deliberations and intervention from highest level to normalise bi-lateral relations between the two countries, the Indian cricket board agreed to invite Pakistan for a short series including three ODI and two T20.

The beneficiary from this abruptly scheduled series is Star India as it holds the telecast rights of international cricked played in India.

According to reports, the BCCI and PCB officials had discussed the possiblity wherein India would have acted as Pakistan?s home venue. The proposal was dropped considering the fact that it would have met with stiff resistance domestically.

The BCCI is not keen in playing Pakistan in United Arab Emirates, which has become a regular home venue for Pakistan, since the Gulf state presents security challenge.

The reason England has emerged as hot favourite to host an Indo-Pak series is due to presence of cricket loving fans besides a sizeable expat population from South Asia. The time zones also favour England since it will be evening prime time in India when the matches are aired on channels.

Ten Sports, which holds the Pakistan board rights till 2013, will wish India to be reciprocal in accepting the return bi-lateral series that is rated higher than the Ashes rivalry between England and Australia.

MUMBAI: For a year that has lighter load of marquee cricket and ad revenue forecast lower than 2011, the first six months have been unusually hectic and dramatic. Star took independent charge of sports broadcasting after News Corp bought out Disney?s stake in ESPN Star Sports, ending a 16-year-old joint venture company in Asia where both the media conglomerates held equal stake. Multi Screen Media (MSM) launched its maiden sports channel ?Six? while Zee introduced India?s first golf channel at a monthly price of Rs 200 a subscriber. Neo walked out of cricket and rebranded Neo Cricket as Neo Prime.

Beyond cricket, broadcasters have tapped into other sports with Neo debuting its hockey league in partnership with Indian Hockey Federation. The first six months, however, have not been easy for sporting leagues.

Cricket?s hottest property got its first reality check after the initial years of hype. The Indian Premier League (IPL) scored lower ratings and earned less advertising revenues than last year, though they are significantly higher than any other cricketing property in the Indian marketplace. Market estimates peg the sports broadcasting ad revenue at Rs 8.5-9 billion in the first six months of the year. With comparatively weaker ad revenue potential for the remaining six months, the early year forecast of ad revenue touching Rs 17 billion in 2012 is highly unlikely.

Star, left free from Disney, will start its aggressive play in sports broadcasting in India. It has already bagged the six-year BCCI rights till 2018 for a whopping Rs 38.51 billion, translating into Rs 401.154 million per match, much higher than what Nimbus had to pay (Rs 312.50 million a match). This squeezed out MSM who had bid Rs 37 billion.

MSM?s ?Six? will fight in the sports broadcasting arena with Ultimate Fighting Championship as its prime property till it telecasts the IPL next year.

With four sports broadcasting companies in the fray, Zee-controlled Ten Sports has renewed the rights for two cricket boards. Cricket South Africa (CSA) rights has come for $180 million and Zimbabwe for $20 million (both for eight years). The task will be to get the other three cricket boards ? Sri Lanka, Pakistan and West Indies.

Zee is also looking at a varied sports channel offering. Ten Golf, positioned premium, is looking at mopping up 500,000 subscribers in three years. Says Zee business head Sports Atul Pande, "There will be a move towards segmentation. We want to be the number one channel in Golf in South Asia."

The exit of cricket has meant that Neo would put its focus on sports like soccer, hockey and tennis. Neo had to also rework on its three-year distribution deal (from 1 September 2010) with TheOneAlliance aborting it and opting for a fresh pact valid for one year.

 LodestarUN COO Anamika Mehta believes that it will be difficult for Neo, whicht was built on the back of India cricket, to scale up. "India is dominated by cricket. While acquisition costs of other sports are low, the revenue is also low as there is only so much attention that other sports will get from advertisers. The channels will also be event centric. There are a limited number of non cricket sporting events that get traction. The Indian cricket team on the other hand plays for around 200 days in the year," she says.

Nimbus kick-started the World Series Hockey (WSH) while Hockey India has announced another league, the first edition of which will take place next year.

According to Hockey India secretary general Narinder Batra, the FIH has given clearance for one month next year during which no international event will be held. "This has been done so that top players like Jamie Dwyer and Teun de Nooijer are free from any international engagements."

Mehta believes the existence of two hockey league tournaments will result in fragmentation. "Even one league will find the going difficult. This is a long term play but the start has not been encouraging. For hockey to be brought back, efforts have to be made at the grassroots level. Then only can the interest levels grow. Leagues in different sports are obviously buoyed by the success of the IPL. But it will not be easy for them as it was for the IPL as there is a lack of familiarity in India for some of these sports," she says.

The leagues in other sports is yet to make an impact. In soccer, the i-League clubs are not happy with the way IMG Reliance, the AIFF?s commercial partner, is managing it as it has yet to come out with a blueprint for its development. The different clubs have, thus, formed the ?i-League Professional Football Clubs Association?.

"Every good league in the world is a separate entity in which the clubs are the stakeholders. We want to improve the standard of football in India and we are ready to do everything from our end as well", says the organisation?s general secretary Chirag Tanna.

The ambitious motorsports league that was planned by Machdar Motrosports has been postponed till next year. The i1 Super Series league has been rescheduled to 2013 as the venue in Delhi was not available.

The Elite Football League of India (EFLI), which aims to bring American football to India, has been preponed and will take place this month in Sri Lanka. It has teams from India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

So which other sport outside cricket is growing in India? ?Soccer is growing among the youth. The Euro 2012 did well this year,? points out Mehta.

The Olympics is expected to fare better this year compared to its earlier edition of 2008. "It will fare better this year. There are two reasons for this. The first is that unlike Doordarshan, ESPN Star Sports will be airing it. So there will be a concerted marketing push and the broadcast will be more professionally managed. The other reason is that there are more sports where India can win medals in. You have sports like boxing, wrestling, shooting and badminton, although tennis could be a disaster. It is not like the old days where the only medal hope was in hockey. I expect a big spike in ratings on those days when India wins a medal," says Mehta.

How big the impact of economic slowdown be on the sports genre? Says Mehta, ?There is a mood of caution but it is not a doomsday scenario. Some sectors like financial services and auto will cut back. If you look at the IPL, consumer durables did not come back in a big way.?

MUMBAI: The cricket boards of India and Pakistan have to decide on the resumption of cricketing ties between the two countries, a top government official said.

Indian Foreign secretary Ranajan Mathai said that the two countries are actively working on resuming sporting ties which have been in suspended animation ever the since the 26/11 terror attack took place in Mumbai.

"As for resumption of cricketing ties, this is a matter between the BCCI and the PCB. There are issues of security as well. However, as you will see in the joint statement we have emphasised the need to promote sports contacts between the two countries," Mathai told reporters after a meeting with his Pakistan counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani.

Jilani was also optimistic that the efforts to normalise sporting relations between the two countries would bear fruit.

"I had discussion for the revival of cricket ties between the two countries. I think that we will continue with this formative trajectory that we have adopted over the years in moving forward in our relationship," he said.

The Pakistan Cricket Board and Board of Control for Cricket in India have in principle agreed to a bi-lateral series. However, dates and revenue matters have only prolonged matters.

The next Indo-Pak series will be hosted by Pakistan. However, the country has become a no-go zone ever since the Sri Lankan cricket was attacked in 2008. Following the attacks, the ICC snatched away co-hosting rights of 2011 Cricket World Cup from Pakistan.

The Pakistani team has been playing its home matches at neutral venues. However, the BCCI is reportedly not keen to play at a neutral venue.

Although, the PCB is ready to play in India it wants the BCCI to share revenue from the series to compensate for the loses it suffered due to Indian team pulling out from their planned tour in 2009.

MUMBAI: Cricketer turned commentator Tony Greig is an outspoken commentator and at times controversial but all that has little impact on the man who is more in the news these days for his tirade against the BCCI and its progeny, the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Speaking at the MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture, Greig has blamed India (read BCCI) for most of the ills inflicting the game.

He suggested that the only way out from the current country versus club conflict is reducing the length of IPL and expanding it to make it a pan-Asia league which would include teams from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.

According to Greig, the understanding between the BCCI and these cricket boards would be that no international cricket would be scheduled during the IPL which would mean extra income for these cricket boards and their players which would also address the issue of player availability.

"India (BCCI) should agree to reduce the length of the IPL in its current form as a trade-off for the other countries not scheduling Internationals in opposition to it. That is, unless it adopts my Asian League proposal which I shall discuss in a minute," Greig stated.

"It should agree to expand the IPL to say an Asian League and include extra teams from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The cricket boards of these countries should be given a financial interest in the competition, which would enable them to under-write most of their cricket.

"Those funds would compensate 10 the boards for not running domestic Twenty/20 competitions of their own as they are planning to do now. This expanded league would enable players from the have-not countries to earn good money and still be available for Internationals."

He further stated that England and South Africa should set-up their own IPL styled leagues which would also include teams from neighboring countries for example Australia could include New Zealand in the Big Bash League.

"England should set up its equivalent of the IPL and include teams from the West Indies and one team from Ireland, which would have a financial interest in the competition. Similar arrangements should be made by South Africa for Zimbabwe and Kenya. And Australia‘s Big Bash should include New Zealand teams.

At the same time he also contended that the ICC should not grant window to any of the domestic Twenty20 leagues that have sprouted in many cricket playing nations.

The former English captain also chided BCCI for its dictatorial ways of stalling major decisions citing the example of Decision Review System which was implemented but later withdrawn due to BCCI‘s pressure.

He said the ICC was just a namesake governing body of the game. In reality it‘s the BCCI which calls the shots courtesy its fledging cricket market which helps the game survive globally.

"Currently, there are 10 full members of the ICC and the constitution requires the approval of 70%, or seven members, to advance any motion, which means 40%, or four members, can block any motion," said Greig.

"Much of the game is controlled by the BCCI because it controls enough votes to block any proposal put forward at the ICC board meetings. The reason for this is some countries would not survive without the financial opportunities India provides."

However, Greig also had a word of praise for the powerful board. He lauded BCCI‘s effort to reward former cricketers with a one-time payment for their services to Indian cricket.

He was of the firm belief that the problems of world cricket can be addressed if India adheres to the spirit of cricket.

"Mahatma Gandhi had said that a nation‘s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people. As cricket certainly resides in the hearts and souls of Indian people I am optimistic India will lead cricket by acting in the best interests of all countries rather than just for India," he averred.

He also recommended that every international team should be required to play at least three Tests, three ODIs and three Twenty/20 matches against all the other teams in a given home and away cycle for the ICC"s Future Tours Programme to work well.

Five, World cricket should do everything possible to not only help the West Indies become a dominant Test force again but to ensure Pakistan cricket survives the extraordinary situation it finds itself.

MUMBAI: The probe into alleged financial irregularities in the Indian Premier League (IPL) was progressing and has reached adjudication level, the Enforcement Directorate has informed the Sports ministry.

Sports minister Ajay Maken had written a letter to the ED on 17 May seeking a speedy probe into the alleged irregularities committed by the BCCI as well as the franchises.

"The ministry has got a response from the ED and they have informed that the cases of alleged violations under the forex rules have entered the adjudication stage. The penal processes will begin soon in the notices sent under FEMA laws," PTI quotes a source privy to the development as saying.

The Finance Ministry has slapped 19 notices to BCCI on alleged foreign exchange violations to the tune of Rs 10.77 billion relating to the IPL.

Maken had also called for an investigation by the ED and Income Tax department whether the players were paid through black money following a sting operation which showed domestic players claiming that they received more money than the prescribed salary cap of the BCCI.

The ministry, which has been at loggerheads with the BCCI, had also written to the revenue secretary seeking an inquiry whether black money was being used in conducting the IPL.

MUMBAI: The president of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Monday appeared before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over his business links with firms owned by Jaganmohan Reddy, the son of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.

Srinivasan was summoned by the agency as part of its ongoing investigation into the disproportionate assets case involving Jagan.

The BCCI chief, who is also India Cements managing director, was grilled for more than seven hours at CBI?s makeshift office in Hyderabad.

The CBI suspects Srinivasan?s company India Cements received undue benefits during the regime of YSR which he reciprocated by investing Rs 1.35 billion in Jagan?s companies. The company, according to CBI, has received additional water allotment for two its plants in Nalgonda and Rangareddy districts during the YSR regime.

However, Srinivasan is believed to have told the investigative agency that the investment in Bharati Cements was purely driven by profit making. He claimed that the investment ultimately paid off as he made profit on it when the company was sold to French firm Vicat Group.