‘Cricket Australia Is Terrified Of BCCI’: Channel 7 Moves Court To Access Boards’ Communication
The Channel 7's contention is that Cricket Australia (CA) gave preference to the wishes of the BCCI as well as its other domestic broadcasting partner Foxtel, a pay channel.
Cricket Australia has been slammed by Australian broadcaster Channel 7. The broadcasters even said that Cricket Australia is ‘terrified of’ the Board of Control for Cricket in India while lodging an affidavit with the court in Melbourne in a pre-discovery action.
It has been claimed that Cricket Australia (CA) has breached the contract by bringing some massive changes to the summer schedule to cater to the needs of BCCI.
Channel 7 has sought access to email communication between CA and the BCCI as it is offended with the scheduling changes. Seven West Media’s chief executive James Warburton said that CA should have started the summer with the day-night Test against India, which is now scheduled to start in Adelaide on December 17, instead of the limited-overs series comprising three ODIs and as many T20 Internationals.
“It’s a shame that the cricket administration has kept their head in the sand. They really don’t value us as a broadcaster, preferring to outperform to the BCCI, who they are terrified of,” Seven West Media chief executive James Warburton was quoted as the Sydney Morning Herald.
The broadcaster’s disagreement is that the seniors in Cricket Australia gave preference to the wishes of the BCCI, the sport’s most powerful governing body, as well as its other domestic broadcasting partner Foxtel.
Foxtel, a pay channel, holds the exclusive rights for the limited-overs matches between Australia and India, which kicked off the summer at the expense of the originally scheduled Test series, which the aggrieved broadcaster – free-to-air – shares with Foxtel.
According to the Australian daily, if the furious broadcaster succeeds in “proving before the court that CA breached its $450 million contract with Seven, of which Seven pays $70 million in cash per year, the network could be awarded tens of millions of dollars in damages or look to terminate its deal, which has three years to run.”
