The Board of Control for Cricket in India's decision to award ZEE Network the right to telecast all matches in the country in the next four years has ran into legal trouble.
ESPN-Star Sports on Monday moved the Mumbai high court challenging the action and Zee promptly filed a caveat.
"This is a very unfortunate decision and we are left with no other option but to resort to the law in an attempt to bring fair-dealing and justice to the process," Rik Dovey, Managing Director, ESPN STAR Sports, Asia, said in a statement.
"We are very clear that ESPN STAR Sports was the highest eligible bidder under the rules of bidding specified by the BCCI and now the BCCI has changed the entire process of bidding in violation of rules set by BCCI themselves to favour our competitor by giving them an unfair advantage," he said.
R C Venkateish, Managing Director, ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd, alleged that the BCCI changed the bidding rules unfairly.
"Zee should not have been allowed to bid in the first place. Zee does even not qualify because as it does not have any experience of broadcasting or producing live international cricket event as specified in the tender," Venkateish said.
"On Sunday the BCCI changed the rules to unfairly disadvantage our bid without giving us any further rights to bid," he added.
On the other hand, a Zee spokesperson said in Mumbai that the channel filed the caveat in order to ensure that the ESPN-Star petition was not heard ex-parte.
On Sunday, Zee Network was granted the telecast rights for matches to be held in the country in the next four years at $308 million, subject to it depositing a signing amount of $20 million within the next 48 hours.
BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya, making the announcement, said, "The Letter of Intent will be extended to Zee soon after receipt of US $20 million by the board".
