Will Star India, which owns the BCCI’s global media rights, enter the fray in 2018 ?
Star India Chairman and CEO, Uday Shankar, offered the centre seat on the head table, said: “Look, we have just won the IPL rights, I have not recovered my breath and I have been asked about the India rights. We have seen how fiercely competitive the BCCI cricket rights are. It would be foolhardy on my part to comment on the BCCI India rights.’’
Read: Star India wins IPL global rights for 5 years
In the last couple of years , BCCI officials, former and present, have made no secret of the fact that Star India, which holds the rights till March 2018, would not agree to enter the India bid race if the reserve price for a home international match (Test, ODI, Twenty20) is set anywhere close to Rs. 43 crore.
Star India is actually paying the BCCI the whopping sum and the broadcaster has confided to many that the advertisement sales have never been anywhere close to Rs. 43 crore for a Test match.
READ: Uday Shankar: ‘I can’t comment on BCCI administration’
A BCCI official wondered how Star India even agreed to pay Rs. 43 crore for each of the three forms of internationals. The reserve price could be Rs.30 crore for home internationals, if not even lower, next year.
Speaking to ‘Sportstar’ after the press conference, Shankar hinted that Rs. 43 crore would be too high to sustain and that he doesn’t think that the BCCI’s ITT for home internationals next year would be for more than five years. “We have a lot of cricket now between the IPL and ICC events and I think we can run a very good business with that,” he said.
Star India’s ICC commitment for the 2015-2023 cycle is $1.98 billion.
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