DD may miss World Cup

There is a clear discrepancy here, for, though the DD Deputy Director-General Sports insists they have received all the relevant statements from the consortium, Stracon director K.B. Lal admits they are yet to submit aseparate statement for each event. And according to Lal, in the case of an event such as the mini-World Cup in Bangladesh last year, there 8220;is no need8221; to prepare a statement, because the consortium suffered a loss 8212; which means there is no question of sharing revenue with Prasar Bharati.

The consortium is the key to DD8217;s telecast of supposedly profitable sporting events, and in the case of the World Cup, has actually forwarded the money for the terrestrial rights that Prasar Bharati bought from the English Cricket Board. Yet, DD viewers will be in the piquant position of being able to watch only 11 World Cup matches those involving India and the semi-finals and the finals. ESPN will be telecasting all 42 matches.

The consortium is also prettily placed for this year, with a host of events lined up, starting with the Champions Trophy in Sharjah in April, exclusive, the Sharjah Cup in October non-exclusive, and Wimbledon and French Open exclusive again. Neither DD nor the consortium bothered tonegotiate with ESPN, who had the rights to the recently-concluded India-Pakistan Test series.

A question mark is also in place about whether DD or the consortium will do so for the seven one-dayers between India and Pakistan and the Asian Test series beginning on February 16.

Last year, the consortium marketed the Independence Cup, the India-Australia-Zimbabwe series, the India-Kenya-Bangladesh triangular, the Singer Akai trophy in Sri Lanka, the French Open, Wimbledon, the World Cup soccer, the Sharjah tournament and the mini-World Cup. But it did not provide accounts for even one of the transactions.

The consortium also owes DD a little over Rs 2 crore in the minimum guarantee that it had contracted to put upfront for the right to telecast.