MUMBAI: The Supreme Court today directed three public sector banks to deposit within 15 days a sum of Rs 4 billion with the Prothonotary and Master of Bombay High Court, who would then remit the money to the bank account of BCCI.

The BCCI had filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) before the Supreme Court aggrieved by the Bombay High Court order that prevented it from invoking bank guarantees following the termination of contract with Nimbus Communications.

However, if the BCCI?s suit fails, the said sum would be returned along with interest. Three nationalised banks namely Punjab National Bank, Indian Bank and Union Bank of India had helped Nimbus to furnish un-conditional bank guarantee to the tune of Rs 16 billion to acquire the BCCI media rights.

The bank guarantees had been given to secure payment of dues by the Nimbus to the BCCI.

The BCCI had entered into Media Rights License Agreement (MRA) with Nimbus Communications for the period from 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2014. In November 2011, the BCCI had terminated the MRA with Nimbus for default in payment and sought to encash the bank guarantees which were in the possession of BCCI.

However, the banks refused to pay the monies to the tune of Rs 16 billion under the unconditional bank guarantees. This compelled the BCCI to file summary suits against the three in the Bombay HC.

Much to the disappointment of BCCI, the Bombay HC granted the three banks leave to defend the suits on a condition that the banks deposit a sum totaling Rs 4 billion with the Prothonotary and Master of the Bombay HC, who would then redeposit the sums with the respective banks.

Earlier, Nimbus Communications was directed by the Bombay HC to secure the dues of BCCI by the way of bank guarantee. The order has not been complied by them and the Company faces contempt proceedings, the BCCI said.

MUMBAI: The Asia Cup cricket tournament will be held in Bangladesh for the second time in a row after India decided not host the event citing packed schedule.

Bangladesh had hosted the last edition of the four nation tournament involving India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in 2012.

According to media reports, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has informed the other ACC members that they were trying to finalise the New Zealand tour, scheduled to be held from February-March next year.

Bangladesh, meanwhile, has agreed to postpone a tri-series involving Sri Lanka and Pakistan around the same time to accommodate the Asia Cup that is slated to take place from 24 February - 8 March, 2014.

GroupM Maxus Client Leader Jigar Rambhia feels that the event would have got more sponsorship revenue on the ground had it been held in India.

"But I don?t think that it would have made much difference in the overall scheme of things. It is a relatively smaller event compared to other properties that will happen next year like the Twenty20 World Cup," says Rambhia.

Nimbus Sport, the sports marketing arm of Nimbus Communications, is the commercial rights holder of Asia Cup till 2014. Neo Sports, a subsidiary of Nimbus, holds the Asia Cup broadcast rights in the Indian sub-continent.

MUMBAI: To ensure that English cricket players are not forced to give the Indian Premier League (IPL) a miss, the England Cricket Board CEO David Collier has asked the BCCI to re-schedule IPL.

English players like Matt Prior are unhappy about not being able to participate in the event. IPL franchises are reluctant to buy England players during player auctions as they are often unavailable for the entire length of the event.

The IPL clashes with the opening weeks of the County season as well as the start of the English international summer. As a result, very few English players take part in the IPL. This season Luke Wright, Eoin Morgan, Owais Shah and Dimitri Mascarenhas are the only England cricketers to be playing in the cash rich IPL.
 
Collier has said that ideally, the IPL should get over by 30 April. "It would make things a lot easier for us. We still have to get the workload balance right, but it would make it a lot easier for our players to be available for that period and certainly the BCCI are fully aware of that. There is a willingness on the part of both Boards to see if we can make any progress" he has said in media reports.

But it seems difficult that BCCI will accommodate Collier?s request in the near future. The World Twenty20 in Bangladesh is scheduled to run from 16 March to 6 April next year. The World Cup in Australia and New Zealand will probably take place in February- March 2015.

New Delhi: The Broadcasting Content Complaints Council wants its recommendations to be extended to the policy guidelines on downlinking of channels in India.

Until now, the BCCC, set up by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) for general entertainment channels, has been making recommendations confined to the policy guidelines on uplinking of channels in India.

Effectively, this could mean that BCCC would be able to make comments even on channels that are being downlinked from overseas, according to sources in the IBF.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry says it is ?actively? examining the various recommendations received from the BCCC, Ministry sources told indiantelevision.com.
BCCC Chairperson Justice A P Shah told indiantelevision.com today that the recommendations were made in response to an interaction with the ministry, and it was for the government to take a decision on these.

Among other recommendations made earlier this year, the BCCC has asked for gradation of ?violations? from mild to severe and said that as a general practice, sanctions imposed should be in the nature of fines and directions for correction

It has said that fines should be substantial in case of serious violations, and not merely token fines. For this, the BCCC has suggested appropriate amendments to Clause 10.2 of the uplinking guidelines.?The BCCI said suspension and revocation of licence of television channels that violate the various codes must be resorted to in exceptional circumstances and only in cases of repeated and extremely severe violations.

Sanctions under Clause 8.2 and Clause 10.2 of the uplinking guidelines should be imposed only in cases of repeated and extremely severe violations. Clause 8.2 provides for prohibition of broadcast for up to 30 days for the first violation, for 90 days for the second violation and for the remaining period of the permission in case of third violation.

Clause 10.2 provides that renewal of permission will not be considered if a channel is found guilty of violations, including that of the programme and advertisement code on five occasions or more.

It says factors to determine the severity of the violation include degree of breach (extent and the severity); duration of breach (time period for which the breach was alive); harm caused (whether any injury has been caused to the objectives of the restrictions); reversibility of the harm (whether the harm can be corrected through any measures); and measures taken for correction of the breach by the broadcaster.??

The BCCC also says the decision of the relevant adjudicatory body pertaining to the imposition of fines, issuance of directions, suspension and/or revocation of the license, should be made appealable.?The decision of the adjudicatory body should be in consultation with the relevant self-regulatory bodies on a case-to-case basis, to determine the degree and extent of the violation by the broadcaster.??

The BCCC points out that while passing the relevant order of sanction, the deciding authority should consider whether the self-regulatory bodies have already taken cognisance of the violation and whether any penalty has been imposed before arriving at its decision. In any case, any decision should be in ?effective consultation? with the self-regulatory bodies, the BCCC said.

The BCCC was set up by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation in June 2011 as an independent body for general entertainment channels. The BCCC came into being after consultations between the IBF and the I&B Ministry to implement ?self-regulatory guidelines and complaints redressal mechanism? for all television channels, excluding news and current affairs channels. The general entertainment channels, children?s channels and special interest channels are covered by the BCCC.

MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is banking heavily on social media or Twitter to be precise to engage sports buffs as it gears up for the season 6 of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

In a first for the cricket body, the BCCI has said that Twitter features on the IPL website, such as the Tweet Counter and Team Hashtag Battle, will be integrated into the television production, with the support of a real-time data stream, and will be flashed on the TV screen during the live telecast of the IPL 2013 matches.

Viewers will be invited and encouraged to tweet and vine on the IPL 2013, and the best tweets of the day will be picked, to be read out by the commentators on air.

The variety of applications and features that this association will yield, promises to make the tournament an unprecedented interactive experience, for the fans.

?It has been our constant endeavour to make the fans feel that they are a vital part of the IPL, and not just passive spectators on the outside. Our relationship with Twitter, one of the world?s most popular and prominent social media platforms, will bring the fans closer to the IPL 2013 and the cricketers participating in it, in a thoroughly engrossing, interesting and enjoyable manner,? said IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla.

?Twitter brings you closer to the things you are passionate about - and for millions of fans worldwide, that?s cricket. We are pleased to see the IPL using Twitter to help fans users follow and connect with their favorite players, teams, and personalities," a Twitter spokesperson said.

Following are some facets of the association between the IPL 2013 and Twitter:

IPL on Twitter

Twitter Magic Mirror: For the first time, this application will be used worldwide throughout a professional sports tournament season.

The Mirror will, in select celebratory settings, allow Cricketers and Celebrities to tweet out candid pictures with one click through the @IPL account. The Mirror will travel the country, and give fans an authentic view of the IPL.

Discover Page: "IPL 2013 Discover Page" (available at discover.twitter.com/IPL) will help users around the world to easily sign up for Twitter, view/join the #PepsiIPL conversation, and follow their favourite cricketers, teams, personalities, celebrities and more, with one click.

Twitter on IPL

The Web

Twitter is extensively featured on the tournament?s official website (iplt20.com) in various forms, such as:

The Team Hashtag Battle: On the Live ?Match Centre,? there will be hashtags for both teams (eg. #KKR and #DD). As the teams fight it out in the middle, their fans will indulge in a battle of hashtags to ensure that their favourite team triumphs on the popularity front.

Live Tweet Counter: The ?Match Centre? has a counter that keeps rolling as people tweet anything related to the match, or the IPL 2013.

Top 10 Trends: There is a section on the homepage that ranks the IPL 2013 teams on the basis of how talked about they are on Twitter. It will help fans track the overall Twitter popularity of their favourite team.

The Loyalty corner: There will be a box on the homepage where the fans can announce their allegiance to a team on Twitter. All they need to do is select which team they support and hit ?TWEET?.

IPL 2013 Conversation: There will be a box on the official website?s homepage, through which the fans can let the world know why they are excited about the Pepsi IPL 2013.

IPL 2013 Tweets: There will be a section on the official website that will feature tweets from the Pepsi IPL 2013 franchises, cricketers, commentators and administrators. The section will act as a fan?s one-stop destination to know what the ?who?s who? of the Pepsi IPL 2013 are talking about.