STUNNING BID MISTAKES BEWILDER SLC COMMITTEE

Obviously they have mixed up the two costs, but this gives you an excellent idea of the standards of these companies. They are bidding for rights worth millions of dollars but they could not get this simple thing right.It is interesting to see if SLC is able to put their trust in them

Nimbus and their subsidiary Neo TV have submitted the highest bids for the TV rights of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) for the next seven years, but there are serious anomalies in the bids submitted by the controversial company which has a history of an acrimonious relationship with SLC, inside sources told Daily Mirror.

Nimbus has submitted the highest offer, worth over 53.5 million US dollars while Neo has submitted a bid worth over 52.5 million US Dollars both of which are way higher than the next closest bid of US $ 34.8 million by the current rights holder Taj TV (Ten Sports).

However, both Neo and Nimbus bids have gone ridiculously wrong somewhere as they have quoted the above figures after meeting the production costs themselves, while they have stunningly quoted lesser figures without meeting the production cost, added sources.

“Obviously they have mixed up the two costs, but this gives you an excellent idea of the standards of these companies. They are bidding for rights worth millions of dollars but they could not get this simple thing right. It is interesting to see if SLC is able to put their trust in them,” said the source.“There is also speculation that they have done this purposely to buy time as SLC election is also due shortly,” he added.

Taj TV, which is the owning company of Dubai based Ten Sports who have held Sri Lanka TV Broadcast rights for more than a decade however have submitted an accurate document and have estimated their cost of production to be worth just over a million US dollars.

The only other bidder in the fray is Kuala Lumpur based Total Sports Asia, who are handling all commercial deals of SLPL owners Somerset Entertainment Ventures (SEV), the Singapore based company headed by Sandeep Bhammer.

However their bid which is just a shade of US $ 20 million does not make them serious challengers. Total Sports Asia is not a TV broadcaster, a pre-requisite specified in the tender document but had later been amended by SLC several days after issuing the bid documents.

The SLC Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) met yesterday for the first time to discuss the bids and were astonished by the error filled bid documents, a member of the committee said.

“We couldn’t believe that big corporate firms could make such mistakes. It shows how serious they were about the bid. The whole committee was confused, because they didn’t know how to proceed,” he said.

The TEC is consisted of SLC Assistant Treasurer Ajita Pasqual (Chairman), SLC Assistant Secretary Hirantha Perera, SLC Head of Finance Chandramali Korale, SLC Head of Cricket Operations Ashley de Silva and a Sports Ministry Representative. A representative from Auditors SJMs Associates and SLC Head of Marketing Vajira Dassanayake will also join the committee in an advisory capacity.

The TEC will evaluate the bids and make their recommendations to the SLC Tender Board which comprises of SLC President Upali Dharmadasa, Vice President Asanga Seneviratne, Secretary Nishantha Ranatunga, Treasurer Nuski Mohamed, Sports Ministry Senior Accountant S.P. Wijeratna and SLC CEO AJit Jayasekara (Secretary). A representative from SJMS, SLC Head of Marketing Dassanayake and Legal Consultant Vindhya Weerasekera will also join in advisory capacities.

SJMC will charge Rs. 1.875 million in addition to reimbursable expenses not exceeding 12.5 percent thereof plus taxes for handling the entire ten- der process.

There has also been a technical deficiency of the Nimbus bid that their bid security amount was short by US $ 40, SLC source told “Daily Mirror”. All bidders had to make a payment of US $ 15,000 as bid security.

“Yes, they were short by US $ 40. They had paid the correct amount, but during the transfer when the bank deducted their charges, it was short by US $ 40. It appears an oversight, but in a serious bidding process every serious bidder should be careful. They can be technically rejected even for such a mistake as the correct bid security amount is a basic requirement,” said the TEC member.

Apart from the botched figures they have quoted and the shortage in their bid security amount, the highest bidder Nimbus or the second highest bidder Neo which are owned by the same company did not have their representative to be present at the tender opening to show the seriousness of their intent.

“For other companies, even some officials from London had flown down specifically for the occasion,” said the source.

SLC’s previous experiences with Nimbus have ended on sour notes, losing several millions of US dollars after litigation.

More than a decade ago, after a legal battle with WSG-Nimbus (Nimbus then owned SLC TV rights in partnership with WSG), SLC had to pay US 5 million dollars in damages to Nimbus and also to cough up another Rs. 57 million as lawyer fees and another Rs. 13 million in overseas travel for the case. This issue cropped up when SLC terminated the SLC TV rights contract with WSG-Nimbus over several issues including defaulting payments.

Then in 2010, SLC filed arbitration proceedings against Nimbus after the TV company failed to honour a staggering payment of US $ 3.6 million that was due for securing rights of India’s ODI series against Sri Lanka played in January, 2009.

It happened after SLC which was then governed by a one-man Competent Authority appointed by the Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge suddenly cancelled the existing TV rights deal with Ten Sports which was to run till 2013 and awarded the rights of a home series against India in January 2009 to Nimbus.

After the series was over, SLC ironically signed a deal again with Ten Sports till 2013.

However, SLC had ignored the basic requirement of a bank guarantee when they signed the deal with Nimbus and when Nimbus defaulted payments under various excuses SLC had no recourse. After another lengthy and costly arbitration procedure, SLC had to finally settle for a lesser amount than what was due, losing several millions of US dollars.

To atone for the failure to deliver this promised home series against India, SLC has to offer the next Indian series to be played in Sri Lanka to Ten Sports, as advised by the Attorney General in reply to recent query by SLC.

SLC Ex-Co decided on February 9, to offer India’s 2017 tour to Sri Lanka which comprises of three Tests, Five ODIs and two T20 Internationals to Ten Sports for a value of US $ 25.127 million, an amount for which Ten Sports has to agree. SLC had calculated the figure, taking into account a five per cent inflation factor as well. This is Sri Lanka’s only homes series against India till 2020.

Nimbus is currently in litigation with BCCI who terminated their Indian TV Broadcast rights deal worth US $ 436 million from 2010 to 2014, over an alleged defaulting of payments by Nimbus. Nimbus is also in litigation with Bangladesh Cricket Board for alegedly defaulting payments running in to several millions of US Dollars.

However, last month, Neo Sports owned by Nimbus won the New Zealand Cricket TV Broadcast rights for Asia for the next seven years in a deal estimated to be around US $ 60-70 million.