CL TV rights to be announced in Dubai

MUMBAI: It will not be all fun in Dubai on Wednesday. The awards ceremony on Wednesday night will precede a lot of business as well.

The mandarins of the cricket boards will sit down to take stock of a lot of issues, the most important being a review of recent umpire referral system. Other important issues are the new Future Tours Programme and, of course, the ICC’s latest headache — the Champions Trophy, which has been postponed.

The business part will not be confined to the ICC affairs alone though. The organisers of the Champions League — cricket boards of India, Australia and South Africa — will make a final announcement of the football-style inter-club Twenty20 tournament, which will be held in India from December 3 to 10.

The first and the most important announcement will be the television rights of the tournament. The tenders have been taken to Dubai and they will be opened at the ICC headquarters on Wednesday.

It was not immediately known who and how many parties have applied for the rights. “It will be known only after we open the tenders tomorrow,” Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman, told DNA. The base money for the bundle rights has been fixed at $ 750 million.
Apart from awarding the rights, the organisers are expected to make an announcement
on the venues of the eight-day tournament. Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai are tipped to host the tournament.