BCCI scraps Nimbus deal, forfeits Rs 2,000 cr bank guarantee

Taking a tough stand, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) today scrapped the contract with its broadcast rights holder Nimbus for defaulting on payments and forfeited the bank guarantee amount of Rs 2,000 crore.

The decision to terminate Nimbus' contract, three years before its expiry, was taken at the BCCI's emergent working committee meeting where members were "unanimous" in scrapping the telecast deal for India's home series matches.

"Members were unanimous that such an organisation which has been a regular defaulter in terms of payments cannot be continued with," one of the members of the working committee said on condition of anonymity.

Nimbus, which had signed a four-year deal with the BCCI in October 2009 for a whopping Rs 2000 crore, paid Rs 24 crore today ahead of the working committee meeting here but there was still an outstanding amount of Rs 88 crore.

"Not a single series has gone where they have paid the full amount on time. Also another reason is that India's international commitments at home have finished with the ODI series against the West Indies," the official said.

Since there was a big gap before the next home series gets underway, the BCCI top brass felt that there is enough time to find a new broadcaster. The termination of Nimbus means that the rest of the domestic season would not be televised. It was also learnt that the working committee members were unhappy about World Series Hockey (WSH) being promoted in the air time scheduled for cricket.

"They were bringing hockey players during the breaks of the cricket matches and forcing commentators Sanjay Manjrekar and Courtney Walsh to ask questions with the hockey players. The break-time show was supposed to be solely dedicated to cricket," the official said.