The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to postpone the tender process to award IPL media rights for the season 2018 and onwards. This development follows the Supreme Court-appointed Justice RM Lodha committee made it clear that "no independent auditor will be appointed by Tuesday", the deadline.

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In a letter issued late on Monday, BCCI requested all bidders to appreciate that the events as have occurred were unforeseen and something over which the board has no control.

"The potential bidders would appreciate that in the past the BCCI has responded to all queries to potential bidders in a prompt fashion and has conducted the entire process in a fair, transparent and professional manner. BCCI offers its sincere apology to all potential bidders and stakeholders who have put in efforts to put together bids by expending considerable time and resources, and have travelled from all across the country and the world to take part in this event," the letter stated.

This has come after Justice Lodha panel asked BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke to clarify certain points in his email to them requesting for expediting the process of appointing "independent auditor" as ordered by Supreme Court before Tuesday, the day of opening of tenders of 18 companies.

Shirke had mentioned that "BCCI has already declared the process of a global tender for the IPL rights, where the previous Ten-year rights contract ended with the end of IPL season May 2016, as it was mandated to do so by the expiring contract".

However, the IPL rights were awarded till the 2017 season and the next tenders by BCCI were only invited for the period from 2018 to 2027 (10 IPL seasons). On receiving Shirke's mail, the Lodha panel secretary Gopal Sankaranarayanan shot back a mail asking him two questions:

  1. When did the previous 10-year rights period come to an end?  
  2. When does the next 10-year rights period commence?

Talking about Shirke's request for expediting the process of appointing independent auditor, a source from the panel said, "We will do it in our own pace."

"Did we ask them to float tenders?" Asked the source, adding: "In any case, there is no need to hurry as there are 18 more months to go before new media rights will come into force."

The source said, "We've been receiving calls from companies who have bid for media rights. And it has been clearly conveyed to them that unless there is complete compliance of the SC orders by BCCI, there can't be any legal bidding for the same."