Justice Lodha panel puts its foot down over IPL broadcast rights
The Lodha Committee virtually spiked the opening of bids for the Indian Premier League, asking Board of Control for Cricket in India president Anurag Thakur to say in writing that the board would “unreservedly comply” with the Supreme Court order of October 21 with
regard to acceptance of the panel’s recommendations.
On the day, the SC appointed Lodha panel held that the tender process would not move forward until it received the BCCI president’s letter.
Thakur later replied to the panel, saying that the compliance report by him and secretary Ajay Shirke would be filed by November 5 and it was the “consistent endeavour of the BCCI office-bearers to ensure implementations of the recommendations by the committee”.
The Lodha committee also sought clarity from the BCCI about the duration of the media ‘Rights Period’, making it clear that no independent auditor will be appointed on the matter before Tuesday. The BCCI’s global media rights tender which comprises broadcast, mobile and Internet rights for the IPL was to be opened in Mumbai on Tuesday with 18 companies including social networking biggies Facebook and Twitter in the fray, having purchased the intent to tender documents.
On October 21, the Supreme Court said in an order that restricted financial functionings of the cricket board until such a time it and its constituent state associations indicated that they would fall in with the Lodha Committee’s recommendations. One section of the order said the Lodha panel would set a “threshold value” for the BCCI’s contracts,
and those deals breaching that barrier would need the committee’s nod, besides asking that an independent auditor be appointed to vet contracts from the initial stages itself. BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke then wrote to the Lodha panel asking whether the independent auditor as directed by the Supreme Court would be appointed before the bidding process began. In a letter to Shirke, the Lodha committee’s secretary, Gopal Shankarnarayan, said, “Before the committee proceeds to issue any directions, it would need to satisfy itself that the BCCI administration is willing to comply with the order of the Supreme Court dated 21.10.2016.
“As you can understand, this would be necessary in view of the BCCI’s stand concerning the earlier order of 18.7.2016. In this regard, the committee requires a letter of compliance from the president BCCI duly undertaking on behalf of the BCCI to unreservedly comply with the order...
“In your letter dated 21.10.2016, the first paragraph reads as follows: 1) The BCCI has already declared the process of a global tender for the IPL rights, where the previous 10-year rights contract ended with the end of IPL season May 2016, that “a. When did the previous ten-year rights period come to an end? and, b. When does the next rights period commence?”