MUMBAI: The English Premier League (EPL) has made available to interested parties the Invitation to Tender (ITT) for its rights spanning seasons 2013/14 - 2015/16 for Asia and Australasia.

The region includes several individual broadcast territories including India. In India, the EPL matches air on ESPN.

The territories where the broadcast rights are going to be sold include: Australia; Hong Kong; India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka; Indonesia and East Timor; Japan; Malaysia and Brunei; Mongolia; Myanmar; New Zealand; North Korea; Pacific Islands; Philippines; South Korea; Taiwan; Thailand, Cambodia and Laos; and Vietnam.

Earlier this month, SingTel had secured the broadcast rights to all 380 EPL matches each season for the seasons 2013/14-2015/16 in Singapore. These rights were acquired on a non-exclusive basis. The matches will continue to be available online on miostadium.com and on mobile via SingTel?s BPL application.

The Barclays Premier League (EPL is so called because Barclays is the title sponsor) claims to be the biggest continuous annual global sporting event in the world. Last season more than 13 million fans attended matches with average stadium occupancy in excess of 92 per cent for the fourth season in a row.

Across nine months of the year 380 matches are viewed in 212 territories worldwide. Coverage of the matches is available in approximately 720 million households with an estimated cumulative global audience of 4.7 billion.

MUMBAI: Rajat Sharma helmed Hindi news channel India TV has done it again. The news channel has alleged that it has caught six international umpires from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka on camera who are willing to fix Twenty20 matches in exchange for bribes.

In a sting operation, the six umpires who were exposed called "Operation World Cup" are Nadeem Ghauri and Anees Siddiqui of Pakistan, Nadir Shah of Bangladesh, and Gamini Dissanayake, Maurice Winston and Sagara Gallage of Sri Lanka. The news broadcaster said the seventh umpire Sharfudoullah Shahid Saikat of Bangladesh refused to give any favour in lieu of money.

The entire sting operation was aired on Monday prime time on India TV.

Earlier, India TV had carried out a sting operation revealing how domestic players were willing to indulge in corrupt practices in lieu for money and other favours like getting a place in an IPL team. The sting led to a probe by Anti-Corruption unit of BCCI and the subsequent ban on five players.

The India TV sting operation revealed how umpires were willing to share information about match like pitch report, weather report, toss report and playing elevens in exchange for money.

The sting operation also alleged how newly created franchise leagues like the Sri Lanka Premier League and Bangladesh Premier League are susceptible to fixing. It must be noted that BPL is already facing allegations of match fixing by certain players.

Bangladesh‘s Nadir Shah, one of the umpires to be caught on camera, revealed that Pakistan‘s opening batsman Nasir Jamshed ‘fixed‘ several matches during the Bangladesh Premier League.

Sri Lankan umpire Sagara Gallage, who was the fourth umpire at the India-Pakistan T20 World Cup match on 17 September, had agreed to reveal the match pitch report, weather report, toss report, and even the playing elevens of both teams for a payment of Rs 50,000.

The channel alleged that he had promised to give decision against Pakistani batsman Imran Nazir in Sri Lanka Premier League. Galage also promised that he would get a decision in favour of India with the help of match referee.

Pakistan‘s Nadeem Ghauri was also willing to lend a helping hand to the Indian team through favourable decisions.

The International Cricket Council while asserting its zero tolerance towards corruption said none of the umpires shown on the sting were involved in ICC World Twenty20 games.

It also urged India TV to share information that would help ICC in its investigation.

"The ICC and its relevant members have been made aware of the allegations made by India TV this evening and calls on the station to turnover any information which can assist the ICC‘s urgent investigations into this matter," the ICC said in a statement.

"The ICC re-iterates its zero-tolerance towards corruption whether alleged against players or officials. The ICC confirms that none of the umpires named were involved in any of the official games of the ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka."

Meanwhile, Pakistani umpire Nadeem Ghauri said there is no truth in the sting operation. He also said that he had not been in the international panel for the past two years.

MUMBAI: The English Premier League has reaffirmed its position as the most popular football league in the world following a record breaking television deal worth ?3.018 billion with pay TV broadcaster Sky Sports and British Telecom for the UK market.

BSkyB, which has built its British sports broadcasting business on the back of Premier League, has secured five of the seven packages totalling 116 matches while British Telecom has secured two packages totalling up to 38 matches for seasons 2013/14 to 2015/16.

The deal represents an increase of ?1.25 billion on the current broadcast settlement, which shares rights between BSkyB and ESPN, which has lost out on the rights this time around despite a strong bid. Sky will fork out ?2.3 billion for the audio-visual rights over the three year period, while BT will pay ?738 million.

ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has the exclusive rights to broadcast the Barclays Premier League (BPL) on multiple platforms in 18 markets across Asia including: India, Indonesia, East Timor, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, North & South Korea, The Philippines, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and in partnership with Astro for Malaysia & Brunei.

Premier League CEO Richard Scudamore said, "As ever, the security provided by broadcast revenues will enable our clubs to continue to invest in all aspects of their football activities and plan sustainably for the foreseeable future. This deal allows them to keep delivering what fans want; top quality football in some of world?s best club stadia and an increasing focus on and commitment to areas such as Youth Development."

MUMBAI: The Bangladesh Premier League, a format borrowed from the cash-rich Indian Premier League, has roped in ESPN Star Sports as the official broadcaster of the tourney.

The Asian sports network has acquired the telecast rights of BPL for a period of three years, starting 2012 running through to 2014.

ESS will showcase the tournament across Asia, along with Channel 9 which will broadcast the tournament domestically in Bangladesh.

The matches will be telecast live on Star Cricket and Star Sports.

The BPL will feature six teams - Barisal Burners, Chittagong Kings, Khulna Royal Bengals, Sylhet Royals, Dhaka Gladiators and Duronto Rajshahi.

The six teams will play each other twice in a round-robin format over 33 matches held in Chittagong and Dhaka.

As the biggest cricketing event of Bangladesh, BPL will feature some of the top names in cricket from around the globe with 21 days of non-stop world class cricket action and entertainment.

ESS director-programming Joyee Biswas said, ?We are delighted to support the expansion of T20 to Bangladesh by bringing this exciting new tournament to cricket fans in Asia.

?As the rights holder for some of the globe?s best cricket events including ICC World T20, CL T20, India-Australia test matches, ODI tri-series between Australia, India and Sri Lanka, and England-Australia ODIs, we are pleased to add Bangladesh Premier League to our portfolio of top cricket coverage.?

Channel 9 MD Enayetur Rahman said, ?As the first GEC channel of Bangladesh with a mix of Sports and Entertainment, and the producer of BPL T20, we are pleased to partner with ESPN STAR Sports to bring BPL to cricket lovers and look forward to a long term relationship.?

Running from 9-29 February, the tournament will feature a mix of 1-2 matches per day. On days when two games are played, the first match will begin at 2 pm local time followed by the second match at 6.30 pm.

In addition to the Icon player from Bangladesh, each team is allowed nine foreign players, five of whom can play per match per team. The opening ceremony of BPL will commence at 5 pm local time today.

MUMBAI: Nizam Uddin Chowdhury Sujan, the general manager of Bangladesh Cricket Board, has been appointed as the acting chief executive officer following the sudden demise of BCB CEO Manzur Ahmed.

Ahmed, who was also a former national cricketer, had passed away on 10 January in Dhaka just days before the players auction for the Bangladesh Premier League, a franchise based T20 league, which he was officially expected to participate.

Chowdhury has previously performed the role of acting CEO of BCB from February 2008 to August 2010 and represented the cricket board in ICC?s Chief Executive Committee from 2008-10 and the Asian Cricket Council Executive Board as an ex-officio member.

As the acting CEO, Sujan will have his task cut out with almost just two weeks left for the inaugural edition of the BPL. The league will be held from 9-29 February.