ICC to move against Indian TV channels
Published:Saturday | April 2, 2011 | 12:00 AM
MUMBAI, India (AP):
The International Cricket Council (ICC) says it will begin legal action against Indian television channels it accuses of repeatedly breaching conditions they agreed to before covering the World Cup.
The ICC said Indian broadcasters had refused at a meeting yesterday to abide by rules of covering the World Cup they signed up to earlier this year.
The news channels are accused of commercialising World Cup-related broadcasts despite not having paid for the right to do so.
"I am very disappointed that it has come to this,'' said ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat. "However, we need to do everything to protect our exclusive commercial rights and those of our partners. If that means we have to resort to legal action, that is regrettable but necessary.''
Only rights holders are allowed to broadcast the games of the tournament, while non-rights holders are given strictly limited access to events like news conferences.
No agreement
The ICC said in a statement that it met in New Delhi with the Indian government and national broadcasters, "who refused to give assurances that they would desist from breaching the broadcast guidelines in their news programming".
But the ICC said it would allow the broadcasters to work at today's World Cup final in Mumbai, where India are seeking to win the trophy for the first time in 28 years when they take on Sri Lanka.
"The ICC has decided to commence legal action against the companies involved and will also seek to recover damages through the courts in India rather than bar the stations from the ICC Cricket World Cup final,'' the ICC said.