Indian Cricket Board Owes TV Channel $21.7M Upon Recalculation

The Board of Control for Cricket in India will pay more than Rs 120 crore ($21.7M) in damages to Zee Entertainment Enterprises for "arbitrarily" terminating in '07 its five-year contract with the TV channel for telecast rights of India's cricket matches played abroad, according to Dhananjay Mahapatra of the TNN. A three-member "arbitral tribunal" comprising two former Chief Justices of India, A S Anand and Y K Sabharwal, and retired Supreme Court judge B N Srikrishna said, "In our view, the claimant is entitled to be awarded damages in view of illegal and unlawful termination of agreement by the respondent and also on account of illegal blacklisting." Zee and BCCI had signed an agreement on April 12, 2006 by which the TV channel was given exclusive telecast, radio broadcast and Internet rights of overseas matches through March 31, 2011. But after the Zee TV group started the Indian Cricket League, "things turned sour between the contracting parties." Zee had sought Rs 480 crore from '07 as damages. The tribunal accepted the argument that BCCI had illegally terminated the contract and thus "causing loss to the TV channel but did a recalculation" (TNN, 11/16).