MUMBAI: The rights for a key cricket property the International Cricket Council (ICC) from post World Cup 2007 - 2015 are expected to be decided on Saturday 9 December 2006.

Speaking to Indiantelevision.com an ICC spokesperson confirms that the ICC's executive board will meet to discuss the issue.

As had been reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com three global bids have been put in by Zee Telefilms, Ten Sports-Infront and Nimbus. The last party has the rights to among other properties India cricket. ESPN Star Sports, has bid for the Indian Subcontinent and the Middle East.

Confirmed bids have also come in from DirecTV (North America); a combined bid by Supersport and SABC (South Africa Broadcast Corporation) for the Africa territory; News Corp's Sky for the UK; Geo TV (for the Pakistan territory); and ARY for Middle East/Pakistan/ Europe and UK.

If Nimbus does get the rights it could well be that it markets the rights to ESPN Star Sports. Nimbus after all has a distribution deal with Star. Sony the incumbent as has been reported earlier pulled out of the race, which is not surprising given the problems that parent company Sony Corp is going through at the moment.