MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India could consider an e auction process for Indian cricket media rights, which are scheduled for tendering in a few months.
The Times of India says the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) was recently “updated on the discussions between the BCCI CEO (Rahul Johri) and an (e-auction) agency which was drawing up a model for assessing areas in which e-auction may be implemented by the BCCI”.
The BCCI had taken a stand against e auctions during the Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights tendering in August this year saying that an e-auction process for bidding would harm its interests from a revenue perspective. When the auction was held in September, BCCI took a stand in the Supreme Court – countering a petition filed by Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy on the matter – and said that an e-auction would “devalue the property”.
In the IPL media rights, The difference between the winning (consolidated) bid and the second highest bid was a mere 3 per cent.According to the TOI, the minutes of CoA’s September 16 meeting have members – Vinod Rai and Diana Eduljee – taking note of the board’s stand on the e auction process.
However, in what is now clearly a change in the cricket board’s mindset, the same CoA members have agreed to “discuss” the idea of an e-auction. TOI quotes sources in the CoA stating that the idea is being deliberated.
