MUMBAI: The president of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Monday appeared before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over his business links with firms owned by Jaganmohan Reddy, the son of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.

Srinivasan was summoned by the agency as part of its ongoing investigation into the disproportionate assets case involving Jagan.

The BCCI chief, who is also India Cements managing director, was grilled for more than seven hours at CBI?s makeshift office in Hyderabad.

The CBI suspects Srinivasan?s company India Cements received undue benefits during the regime of YSR which he reciprocated by investing Rs 1.35 billion in Jagan?s companies. The company, according to CBI, has received additional water allotment for two its plants in Nalgonda and Rangareddy districts during the YSR regime.

However, Srinivasan is believed to have told the investigative agency that the investment in Bharati Cements was purely driven by profit making. He claimed that the investment ultimately paid off as he made profit on it when the company was sold to French firm Vicat Group.

MUMBAI: Deccan Chronicle Holdings (DHL), the parent company of IPL franchise Deccan Chargers, is exploring possibilities of selling the franchise.

The media company, which runs popular English daily Deccan Chronicle, has mandated Religare Capital Markets to advise it on offers that have come for the Hyderabad based IPL team.

However, it could not be ascertained whether Deccan is looking at a minority, majority or an outright sale. The prospect of a complete exit cannot be ruled out since a Deccan Chargers official had earlier told Indiantelevision.com that the parent company was game for it provided the value is right.

?Deccan Chronicle Holdings has been approached by multiple parties evincing interest in acquiring stake in Deccan Chargers and the company has appointed Religare Capital Markets to run a process and advise us of suitability of the offers,? DCH said.

The company, however, clarified that the ?the above step is only exploratory and no conclusive or firm decision has been taken on the issue.?

When contacted, Deccan Chronicle Holdings vice chairman PK Iyer refused to get into the details. ?I don?t have any comments to make on the matter," he said.

This is not the first time that DCH has mandated an investment bank to find suitors. In 2008, DCH had appointed KPMG Corporate Finance and was looking at a valuation of $250 million including the option to exit at the right price.

However, the company had to put the franchise sale on slow burner since it did not find many takers at that price which only accentuated with the economic slowdown of 2009.

Deccan Chargers Sporting Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of DHL, had bought the franchise rights of Hyderabad IPL franchise for $107.01 million which was payable over a 10-year period.

IPL teams have often been in the news for being approached by investors who see business opportunity in the cash rich league despite the fall of its brand value due to controversies surrounding it.

Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab have also reportedly been on the lookout for buyers, though the teams have refused to talk about it publicly.

Recently, Kolkata-based Jain Group was said to be in talks with Royals to acquire the franchise at a valuation of $200 million. However, things did not materialise and the deal fell through.

Similarly, Punjab team was in 2010 approached by Videocon Group to buy the franchise whose investors include Dabur?s Mohit Burman, Wadia Group?s Ness Wadia, actress Priety Zinta, and Karan Paul of Apeejay Surendra Group.

It is believed that the two franchises have to get BCCI?s permission to sell stake since the both are currently in arbitration with the cricket board.

The BCCI had in 2010 terminated franchise agreements of the two teams. However, both were successfully reinstated after legal battle.

Incidentally, Videocon Group couldn?t manage to get an IPL franchise as the bidding process to identify the two new teams was cancelled. The company was keen on Pune franchise which is currently owned by Sahara Group.

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MUMBAI: The BCCI will not allow Indian cricket players to participate in the Sri Lanka Premier League, a move seen as protecting the Indian Premier League from facing any competition whatsoever.

The BCCI?s main contention is that if it permits Indian players to play in the Sri Lanka league, then it may set a precedent for other leagues across the world.

Though a severe setback, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has decided to go ahead with the event with or without Indian partcipation.

SLC Secretary Nishantha Ranatunga said, "We will go ahead with the tournament with or without Indian players".

Ranatunga also said that SLC had not been officially told that Indian players would not take part in SLPL.

The league will take place in August before the Twenty20 World Cup. Last year the league did not take off as the BCCI did not allow Indian players to take part.

MUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has issued summons to BCCI president N Srinivasan, who is also the managing director of India Cements, in Jaganmohan Reddy disproportionate assets case.

The CBI suspects Srinivasan has business interests in companies owned by Jaganmohan Reddy, the son of former Andhra Pradesh chief minster the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy.

It also believes that India Cements received favours under the YSR regime in the form of enhanced water allocations which helped the cement company to double its production.

The CBI had on 27 May arrested Jagan over the charges of misappropriation and remanded him to judicial custody till 11 June. The issue has lately created a stir in the southern state which is going through a political turmoil.

MUMBAI: Neo Cricket, the dedicated cricket channel from Neo Sports broadcast stable, will begin its journey as an all sports channel starting 3 June under the new name of Neo Prime amid intense competition from ESPN Star Sports, Zee?s Ten bouquet of channels and a new entrant Sony Six.

The channel is being built after its cricket content has depleted following the loss of the marquee India cricket rights. The sports broadcasting company has been mulling converting into an all sports channel for quite some time as it is left with only one cricket property, Asia Cup, ever since its contract with BCCI got terminated in December 2011. The Bangladesh Cricket Board rights also expired in April.

Neo Sports Broadcast has a good volume of non-cricket sports which it will distribute across its two-channel network. While Neo Prime will telecast mass sports including cricket, Neo Sports will cater to more niche and special interest products. Plans are also afloat to offer Neo Prime in High Definition.

"We have been planning on the rebranding before a couple of months but it goes through a process as we need Ministry of Information & Broadcasting?s approval which we got on Friday," Neo Sports Broadcast COO Prasanna Krishnan tells Indiantelevision.com.

Neo Sports Broadcast will focus on Football, Badminton, Tennis, Hockey and Golf to drive the growth of the two Neo channels.

In football, Neo has the rights for Copa America, German Bundesliga, Serie A and the crown jewel ? Uefa Euro 2012, the rights of which it acquired after forking out $11 million.

Hockey is another sport the broadcaster is betting big on. It had recently picked up the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup rights for five years. It also airs World Series Hockey, the franchise based hockey league co-promoted by sister concern Nimbus Sport.

Its tennis lineup comprises French Open, Davis Cup and Fed Cup while in golf it owns the rights to US PGA Tour, in addition to BWF Badminton Super Series in badminton.

"We couldn?t continue with the Neo Cricket name with the properties that we had. We had a lot of other sports content," Krishnan says.

Neo Cricket was logical when it had possession of the BCCI rights (which are now with Star India). Admits Krishnan, "Earlier on with the BCCI rights we always had enough of cricket including domestic cricket. So we needed a dedicated channel because of the volumes. But now in the current situation it makes more sense for us to become an all sports channel. We are also having the problem of scheduling particularly during the weekend wherein we had more content than we can could show at a point of time."

Prasanna also points out that other networks like Ten and ESS have channels in addition to cricket that can be used to air events in case of overlapping, something that was missing in Neo since it had only one all sports channel. "We are changing this with our rebranding."

ESPN Star Sports has two channels apart from a cricket channel. Similarly, Ten has Ten Action+ and Ten Golf. "We were having enough live content but were unable to utilise it. So it seemed to be a sensible strategy going forward," he explains.

The rebranding is timely as it precedes the 2012 Uefa European Football Championship, Neo?s biggest sporting property. Uefa Euro, hosted by Poland and Ukraine, will take place between 8 June and 1 July.

"We will do marketing campaigns to announce the rebranding. But we also have an advantage as it is happening in the middle of Uefa Euro which will attract a lot of viewers," says Prasanna.

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MUMBAI: Rattled by the sting operation which brought unethical dealings between domestic players and the franchises to the fore, the BCCI has decided to auction all uncapped players from next edition of the tournament.

"All domestic players will be put under the hammer from the next edition of the tournament," Shukla said.

According to IPL players? guideline, the franchises are not allowed to pay more than Rs 3 million to uncapped players, which was a cause of anger among many domestic players who were missing out on big monies due to the rule of having an India cap in order to be included in the auction pool.

Shukla said the reason BCCI did not auction uncapped players was due to the fact that franchises usually opt for well-known players.

"This (not auctioning players) was done to open up opportunities for little known domestic players as teams normally go for the known faces only," he stated.

He said the BCCI has "zero tolerance" towards corruption pointing out the suspension of five players caught in the sting operation pending inquiry. He also said a team of anti-corruption unit of ICC had been keeping a close watch on the players during IPL.

In the same breadth, he added that the BCCI was not responsible for the conduct of players off the field.

Shukla brushed aside the criticism by Member of Parliament and former cricketer turned MP Kirti Azad who had called for drastic measures to clean up the system.

"If 2-3 MPs call for ban, it can?t be taken as view of the House. IPL-V has been very successful and was watched in 192 countries across the world. Hence people are jealous. Will Parliament be closed if some MPs do something wrong? These MPs don?t know the pulse of the people," he told a news channel.