Finally, BCCI sets sights on Net gains

A day after signing a whopping deal with Sahara India, the BCCI today unveiled plans that could change the face of its marketing: its own te...

A day after signing a whopping deal with Sahara India, the BCCI today unveiled plans that could change the face of its marketing: its own television channel and its own interactive website portal. The second is more signficant, since it has been largely untapped all these years.

In the next few months it plans to launch a state-of-the-art official web portal, which will be accessible globally over the Internet. And it has received a $44-million offer from US-based Willow TV for four-year rights to the American market.

‘‘We discovered that we should make the most of the Internet media as well’’, Punjab Cricket Association president Inderjit Singh Bindra told The Indian Express today. ‘‘So we’ll have a transparent bidding process to find someone who will set up this web portal for us. Willow TV has already come up with this offer; they want to buy from the BCCI the rights to set up a portal for American citizens.’’

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Incidentally, Willow TV worked with the newly launched WorldHockey TV to broadcast the recent Champions Trophy in Chennai to the US and the Caribbean.

	India’s Pak itinerary

			• Departure: January 6 3-day warm-up game (Lahore—Jan 7-9) First Test, Lahore (January 14-18) Second Test, Faisalabad (January 22-26) Third Test, Karachi (January 30 – February 3) (Followed by five ODIs) Arrival: February 20

The BCCI’s website, Bindra said, would be similar to what top football clubs in England and Spain aleady have: an interactive online address with customary data, video and audio clips of India’s international engagements and cricket merchandise.

Setting it up won’t cost much, Bindra explained. ‘‘Once we outsource setting it up, either Willow TV or any other company can do it for us. All that needs to be done is setting up the antennae in the US and Hong Kong, and the portal will be operative.’’

In New Delhi, BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi spoke about the Board’s own TV channel to control distribution of live pictures of both ODIs and Test matches. The pictures will no longer be distributed through broadcasters.

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‘‘We will be inviting bids and sell the rights. We are already in the process of designing and registering our own network logo,’’ he said, adding, ‘‘we will come back to you soon on the issue.’’

Ganguly meets Pawar, looks assured

		New Delhi: Meanwhile, Sourav Ganguly met BCCI chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday evening and placed his side of the story before the latter. Ganguly, who flew in to New Delhi after he came to know that Pawar was willing to hear his case, drove to straight from the airport to Pawar’s residence at 9 pm, and was closeted with the latter for more than 45 minutes. The former captain looked assured when he emerged from the meeting. According to sources, Ganguly was given an assurance that he would be in the Indian team for the Pakistan tour next month. Pawar is understood to have told Ganguly that his rightful claims would not be ignored. Pawar wanted to listen to Ganguly before Parliament took up the issue of the former captain’s sacking so that he could give a reasoned reply in the Lok Sabha. Rajiv Shukla, media advisor to the BCCI, told mediapersons that the meeting had taken place at the instance of Ganguly. ‘‘He called up Sharad Pawar on phone on Monday and expressed his desire to meet him. The BCCI president agreed to meet him,” Shukla said. (ENS)

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