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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, APRIL 8: The cricket World Cup on Doordarshan looks like it’s on a sticky wicket with Stracon, the leader of the sports consortium, moving the Delhi High Court on Thursday to restrain Prasar Bharati from breaching its agreement. And even as the Prasar Bharati board-sanctioned inquiry against Stracon proceeds, Ray insists that if DD is unhappy at having made only Rs 10 crore from their contract between March 1998 and March 1999, then that is "DD’s problem". DD sources, though, maintain this sum reflects Stracon’s poor marketing efforts.
While Prasar Bharati Acting CEO O P Kejriwal refused to comment on the matter saying it is subjudice, Ray also said that he had funded the World Cup telecast rights and according to the mother agreement between the English Cricket Board and DD, "the consortium is the joint owner so DD cannot ask us to revise the contract".
DD maintains that the terms and conditions of the World Cup contract with the sports consortium are unfavourable and the minimum revenue theyshould be assured is Rs 35 crore, which is the offer from Nimbus, a company which is a recalcitrant member of the consortium (having gone in for arbitration against Stracon).
To that Ray answers that as the agreement was signed on December 3 last year by Kejriwal and was on the files since September 21, Prasar Bharati had enough time to examine any flaws. Ray also said that DD would be able to see "fairly good amounts" from three events last year, the soccer World Cup, Pepsi Tri-Series and the French Open.
DD’s contract with the consortium (other members UTV and Creative Eye have not gone to court) is valid till January 2000, and this year the rights to the Triangular series in Sri Lanka in August-September and the Sharjah Cup in October are also with it.
As for reasons why the consortium was not able to make more money for DD, Ray says he lost Rs 14 crore on the ICC Knockout in Dhaka, because of DD’s "foolhardy bid of $ 11 million though I told them the event won’t fetch more than $ 8 million in themarket". He said he also lost Rs 2.5 crore on the Sharjah Cup last year.
Ray’s petition has also asked for an injunction not to tamper with the telecast of the ongoing Sharjah Cup and an interim injunction restraining Prasar Bharati from stopping the telecast of his Sachin Tendulkar promos which were scheduled from April 1.
When asked about the inquiry against him, he said "any such probe should be by a Government mechanism not an extra constitutional authority like someone’s nephew."
Stracon says it already has bookings from clients for Rs 53 crore for the World Cup, on which DD, as of now, stands to make a profit of Rs 6.5 crore.
