IPL media rights: BCCI postpones bidding process due to 'unforeseen' events

New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to postpone the bidding process of the Indian Premier League (IPL) scheduled for Tuesday.

The Indian board issued a press release late on Monday to inform the same.

"In the absence of permission from the Committee to go ahead with the process scheduled for tomorrow, the BCCI is unable to do so," the statement said.

The BCCI's tender process to award IPL media rights was thrown into jeopardy after the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha committee sought clarity from the Cricket Board about duration of the media 'Rights Period', making it amply clear that no independent auditor will be appointed on Tuesday.

The board also told the bidders that they board had no control over the 'unforseen' circumstances.

"The BCCI requests all bidders to appreciate that the events as have occurred were unforeseen and something over which the BCCI has no control. The potential bidders would appreciate that in the past the BCCI has responded to all queries to potential bidders in a prompt fashion and has conducted the entire process in a fair, transparent and professional manner," the statement said.

The Supreme Court on Friday said the Justice Lodha Committee will appoint an independent auditor to study the BCCI's finances, including contracts involving media rights and other tenders above a certain threshold value.

The auditor would scrutinise and audit the income and expenditure of the the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), oversee the tendering process above a threshold value to be fixed by the committee and the award of the contract subject to the approval of Lodha panel. The Lodha panel would be at liberty to obtain the advice of the auditors on the fairness of the tendering process.

The committee would be at liberty to formulate the terms of engagement of the auditors having regard to the above directions and the BCCI "shall defray the costs, charges and expenses of the auditors".

A bench comprising Chief Justice T.S Thakur, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the BCCI will not disburse any funds to its state affiliates until they undertake to abide with the directions of the court and the recommendations of the Lodha Committee.

The Court also granted the BCCI time till December 3 to comply with its orders and asked it to file compliance report by December 5.

Replying to the panel's query, BCCI president Anurag Thakur has said that the compliance report by him and secretary Ajay Shirke will be filed by November 5 and it's their "consistent endeavour of the BCCI office-bearers to ensure implementations of the recommendations by the committee".

(With PTI inputs)