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By Sa'adi Thawfeeq

By signing a new contract with Taj Television, who are currently handling the on-going one-day tournament in Sharjah, the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) has retained certain rights which the former television company WSG Nimbus had been given access to by the previous cricket administration.

The BCCSL, when they invited for fresh tenders after terminating their contract with WSG Nimbus, allowed bids only for the following four rights: TV rights (outside Sri Lanka), radio rights (outside Sri Lanka), title sponsorship and 40 ground runners.

In their bid document they also attached two additional tours in 2004 Australia and South Africa who are due to tour Sri Lanka in that period. The two bidders who came forward were Taj Television and TWI. The WSG Nimbus contract did not leave the BCCSL with any hold on it at all and gave the entire rights, including team sponsorship etc. to the television company who also had the luxury of making a 15 percent commission on every deal they made.

Thus, if one compares the contract the BCCSL has signed with Taj Television and the one with WSG Nimbus for the rest of the period (from the time it ceased), the Cricket Board would stand to gain financially, particularly with most of the rights being retained by them. What has transpired is that there were so many areas for which the BCCSL had to inter-cost with the WSG Nimbus contract which the BCCSL claims, could have amounted to US$5 million during the period of the contract.

WSG Nimbus enjoyed unlimited commercial rights like: team sponsorship, clothes sponsorship, product sponsorship, merchandising rights, promotional rights and players personal rights. In addition, the BCCSL saved considerable sums of money in not having to provide the following facilities which had to be incurred under the WSG Nimbus agreement: Production and handling cost of ground runners, Access fees to local television stations and, other hospitality and promotional expenses. The guarantee fee for the Taj Television contract is US$13.9 million. But after deduction of tours not included in the WSG contract and the addition of the Dilmah team sponsorship (which amounted to US$3.3 million) the nett gain for the BCCSL is US$14.04 million. Comparatively, WSG Nimbus contract although it overall boasted of a figure of US$27.1 million, after deduction of tours already concluded at the time of calling for bids, the three Tests cancelled with New Zealand and adjustments to future tour schedules shows a figure of only US$ 13.15 million.

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