BCCI president Ranbir Singh Mahendra has gone public with his fears about the Pakistan tour being cancelled if the TV rights issue is not sorted out. He’s right in the legal sense: ICC rules, as its chief Ehsan Mani said on Tuesday, state that every host country must have a prescribed number of cameras on the field to provide live feed to the third umpire. But there’s no need to press the panic button yet. The scene was similar six months ago, just before the Australia series; here’s how that panned out. September 5, 2004: BCCI awards rights to telecast cricket in India to Zee TV; ESPN Star Sports moves Bombay High Court September 20: BCCI produces letter from Cricket Australia (CA) saying there can be no tour without telecast and will withdraw from the series September 21: BCCI cancels the tender awarded to Zee saying it does not want to jeopardise the series and will make alternative arrangements on its own forcing Zee to go to Supreme Court September 29-30: Shadow of the TV rights clouds the BCCI AGM in Kolkata. Ranbir Singh Mahendra wins a close contest October 1: Mahendra announces alternative arrangements for DD to telecast, Ten Sports to produce and Sony to market Australia series October 5: In interim order, Supreme Court allows DD to telecast the Australia, South Africa series as also the BCCI Platinum Jubilee one-day match against Pakistan October 6: First India-Australia Test begins. Live on DD Sports.
