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Business of TV Sport
Sportel Monaco 2011

IPL council to review media rights deal

The governing council of cricket’s Indian Premier League is to review a nine-year, $1.6 billion media rights agreement between the World Sport Group (WSG) agency and Indian broadcaster Multi Screen Media (MSM) at a meeting on Friday.
Alleged irregularities in the deal, including the payment of an $80 million facilitation fee by MSM to WSG’s Mauritius-based subsidiary, were among several charges levelled at Lalit Modi, the suspended IPL commissioner.

Yesterday N Srinivasan, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, circulated a six-page letter explaining why Modi’s responses to the charges were unsatisfactory. On the facilitation fee paid to WSG Mauritius, the letter says that Modi “has not explained why the BCCI was made to practically guarantee payment by MSM to WSG Mauritius. There is no explanation why such a contract should have been signed. The facts clearly point to the serious irregularities in the award of media rights.”