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With a view to a Cup

As part of its move to globalise its sports coverage, Prasar Bharati signed a deal with the International Cricket Council (ICC) for exclusive rights to telecast the Wills International knock out one day tournament, involving all nine Test-playing nations, to be held in Dhaka from October 24 to November 1. The deal also includes radio rights.

Doordarshan won the multi-crore agreement in the global bidding, with ICC president Jagmohan Dalmiya indicating that one main consideration for awarding the rights to DD was the viewership reach. As part of the quid pro quo, DD has also agreed to provide 30 hours worth of cricket coverage during a 'Cricket Week', the dates for which are yet to be finalised. This 'Cricket Week' is a brainchild of Dalmiya, and is intended to help popularise the game worldwide.

A consortium comprising television companies Stracon, Creative Eye and Nimbus, have been put in place to produce the event for DD.

As per the agreement, DD will retain over 60 per cent of all profits, the rest to be shared by the partners in the consortium. In the event of losses, the consortium will bear it on their own -- giving DD a heads I win, tails you lose kind of deal.

Prasar Bharati CEO S S Gill said, when asked why Doordarshan was planning to cover such a mega event, ``Our mandate is to provide entertainment to the poorer sections. We find that 80 per cent of TV viewers are without cable connection and are deprived of major matches, especially cricket.''

When it was pointed out that Doordarshan's images lacked the crisp quality of those provided by the likes of ESPN and Star Sports, Gill laid the blame at the door of cable operators. "The poor quality of our visuals is partly because of cable operators letting us down, partly owing to sabotage," the PB chief said, adding that thanks to detailed discussions with major cable networks in the metros, the problem had been solved.

This is the first time that DD has bagged exclusive telecast rights for an international event being held abroad, though it was responsible, earlier this year, for beaming the images from the Independence Cup triangular in Dhaka, featuring Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.

Though DD has the telecast rights, the images will be produced by the WorldTel team. And for what is being billed as a mini-World Cup, WorldTel is pulling out all the stops.

Thus, there will be as many as eighteen electronic eyes to provide the visual part of the coverage. All 8 matches are being played at the Bangabandhu National Stadium, which means that WorldTel has the advantage of being able to fix cameras in the best angles, and keep them in place for the duration of the tournament.

Of the 18 cameras, 12 -- including two stump vision cameras -- will be permanently installed. This component of the coverage will also include five super slow motion cameras.

Another camera will be placed atop the 24-storey Shilpa Bank Bhavan, which overlooks the ground, and another one on top of one of the floodlight towers. These two will provide the aerial views.

One camera will be placed underneath the electronic scoreboard. And another camera will be so positioned as to provide closeups of the commentators.

Another special feature this time will be the use of slave cameras -- namely, remote controlled cameras at the disposal of the production crew. Also known as crease-line cameras, they will be placed in line with the crease, at the eastern side of the stadium.

These provide the best possible view for run out decisions. Earlier, such cameras were provided in South Africa for the benefit of the third umpire, but this time round, viewers will also receive the images from these fixed cameras.

Thanks to the enhanced coverage, the producers will be able to provide as many as 11 different replays, from as many angles -- easily the best coverage of an international cricket tournament to have been attempted thus far.

Telecast details are as follows:

Doordarshan will beam images from 1345 IST to 2220 IST (or till the end of the match) on each of the following days:

October 24: New Zealand vs Zimbabwe.

October 25: England vs South Africa

October 26: Sri Lanka vs winner of New Zealand versus Zimbabwe

October 28: India versus Australia

October 29: Pakistan vs West Indies.

October 30: Winner of {England vs South Africa} versus {Sri Lanka versus NZ/Zimbabwe}.

October 31: Winner of {India versus Australia) versus {Pakistan versus West Indies}.

November 1: Final.

In the event of rain ruling out play on the final day, the match will be postponed to November 2.

The umpires for the tournament, all part of the ICC panel, are S Venkatraghavan (India), David Shepherd and Peter Willey (England), Steve Bucknor (West Indies), Steve Dunne (New Zealand) and David Orchard (South Africa).

Raman Subba Row of England and Ranjan Madugalle of Sri Lanka will be the two match referees for the tournament.

Gundappa Viswanath of India and Ibrahim Isaac of South Africa, who have been newly inducted into the ICC match referees' panel, will also be present, as understudies to Row and Madugalle, in order to gain experience.

Agencies