Greg Barclay and Geoff Allardyce, the chairman and CEO of the International Cricket Council (ICC) respectively, have sought appointments with the television and digital media executives in India, and are set to meet them in Mumbai. Both, invited by the Board of Control for Cricket in India for the IPL playoffs and final, will be in the city on Friday when the meetings are scheduled.
Barclay, currently in Kolkata for the first two matches of the play-offs, will be joined by the CEO in Mumbai before they proceed to Ahmedabad for the final on Sunday (May 29). ICC sources and media executives have confirmed to Cricbuzz about the meeting, expected to discuss the ICC rights tender, the process of which is expected to be completed in July. The ICC will be selling the rights for the 2024-31 cycle of world cricket. The tender will be out immediately after the BCCI completes the sale of the IPL rights by mid-June.
One of the points of discussion will be the Champions Trophy in 2025, allotted to Pakistan, about which there was some debate in India after the ICC allotted the championship to Pakistan and India's Sports Minister Anurag Thakur had commented about it too with regard to India's participation. The meeting comes close on the heels of a similar meeting of the two ICC honchos held in Mumbai last month with the television executives and digital players in the country. The broadcasters had raised that issue then as well.
Mean while, it has been learned that the BCCI has engaged the services of M junction Services Limited to conduct the IPL media rights e-auction from June 12. M junction, a JV of Sail and Tata Steels, will be providing the bidding platform for the auction.
The service provider will also be conducting a workshop, mock auction and a few training sessions for the parties who will be eligible to bid for the IPL rights. As is well known, the e-auction for the Package A and Package B (India sub-continent television and digital rights) will be held first on June 12 followed by bidding for the Package C and D, which could spill over to the next day.
Madhevere and Innocent Kaia's start looked initially promising, the pair finding the rope in each of the first four overs, but when Jan Frylinck struck twice in two balls to remove Madhevere and Chakabva in the fourth over the innings began to unravel. Kaia would be run out three balls later and a nascent partnership between Raza and Tony Munyonga would be snuffed out in the ninth when Ben Shikongo had the former caught behind for 12, before Bernhard Scholtz bowled Richmond Mutumbami in the next over as Zimbabwe stumbled to 59-5 by the end of the tenth.
From there on it would be one-way traffic, not a single boundary struck in the second half of the innings as the hosts slowly wilted. Munyonga would try to take the game deep even as the asking rate began to edge up, but Erasmus would deprive him of another partner in the 13th, bringing himself into the attack and having Donald Tiripano caught by Shikongo off his fourth delivery.
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