Australia to tour India every year from 2007 to 2009

The Indian board has announced that Australia will tour India every yearfrom 2007 to 2009, and that after the 2006 Champions Trophy it will notparticipate in further editions of the tournament. Lalit Modi,vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, said that theywere also in talks with the England board regarding touring schedules.”As far as England are concerned, after this series we have one scheduledin 2009,” Modi said. “We are in active negotiations with England and othercountries to see who can come to us on a reciprocal basis.” He added thatIndia will play seven ODIs when Australia tour India in 2007, four Tests when they come in 2008, and seven or eight ODIs in 2009. India would tour Australia in 2007-08 for four Tests and seven or eight ODIs.Replying to a query about whether India would avoid playing teams such asBangladesh, Modi said, “Bangladesh made a request to us and we’ll betouring them next year…” He was interrupted by IS Bindra, former BCCI president, who said:”They make more money by our going there. If they come to India, they willget only meal allowance. If we go there they make huge television revenueand title sponsorship.”On this day of announcements with far-reaching consequences, Modi revealedthat India and Pakistan would play two one-dayers at Abu Dhabi in Aprilfor earthquake relief. When the calender is released shortly it is likelyto be unlike what the ICC envisaged.Significantly, Modi also said that the BCCI would produce its owntelecasts, which includes choosing commentators. Invites would be sent tomajor production houses shortly. Channels carrying the feed would merelybe carriers, and would have to carry the BCCI logo.”The way we are planning to do this is, in regards to production, we willbe going forward and putting out a tender for the BCCI to appoint its ownproduction company to do all production on the behalf of the BCCI goingforward,” said Modi. “In other words, BCCI will be the producer of allseries played in India on a regular basis. We will make sure we provide aworld class feed. We have also decided that, for the first time in globalhistory, we will produce a high-definition feed. It’ll be the best qualityfeed that has ever been produced by any cricket board anywhere, and forthat we will invite the world’s best production companies.”We will have all the latest gimmicks that Australia or England provide.We will not, in any which way, cut corners in our production. Usually whatused to happen is because of a shortage of money or other issues, peopleused to cut back on value additions in terms of production. All theanchors will be BCCI anchors. They will be hired by the BCCI. We will alsoproduce programs prior and post matches which will be bundled in with ourproduction feed. The BCCI network logo will also be put on the feed. Itwill be produced in multiple languages. You will have Hindi, English,Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, and as the market demands, we will have more.”The total value of the bids, Modi said, was expected to be at least $350million. This is a conservative estimate, and if a single bidder pays morefor all the tenders than do all the highest bidders for each seperatetender, it will take away the rights. Modi and Bindra, mostly silentbeside him, said that it was about extracting the most value for theboard.”The global bid encompasses all rights, and all country rights,”Modi said. “So if you have the appetite to bid for all rights globally,and for all media, you have an opportunity to put in a number. Then thereis part B: if you are interested in bidding for television rights in theUK market, you can do that alone. A second person may only be interestedin radio rights in Sri Lanka, so he can bid for that. If the aggregationof the bids for all the rights is higher than the global bid, the rightswill be farmed out to individual players. Thereby, people in theirparticular domain can bid for rights interesting to them. They don’t haveto go begging and pleading to a third party for our rights.”He said that everything would be ready by March. “We are very quick ingetting our tenders out and closing them. Like we’ve demonstrated in thepast, we’ll be fully open and transparent,” he said, grinning.Also in the pipline was a move to ensure that Indian series played abroadwere broadcast prominently at home. “The rights outside India are not inthe purview of the BCCI,” Modi said. “The BCCI will propose at the nextICC meeting that the rights when we are touring should be widely broadcaston Indian platform. Those rights belong to those boards. There is nothingwe can do but advise those boards.”Rebutting criticism that the BCCI had become a money-making machine,Bindra said that it was part of the professionalism of the new regime, andthe rash of initiatives involved building the BCCI’s brand. The air was also thick with talk of’products’, which the BCCI was looking to add to its product line. Amongthem was domestic cricket, of which 70 days would be broadcast live withcommentary. “In our tender process we will also have 70 days offirst-class cricket, so you will have the domestic trophies running liveon television. That number will only increase year by year as we add moreproducts to our product line. There will be live commentary, and livetelevision.”Modi also revealed that India would play a one-day series at home before theChampions Trophy in October, which would help them with their one-dayform. Also, before the World Cup, two teams (yet to be decided) would beinvited to play in India for one-dayers as preparation.