The ascendency of India as an economic world power

Now, almost all the cricket fans in India know about Indian Cricket League’s first Twenty20 competition starting from 30 November 2007. Ahead of the tournament, organizer Essel Group has made an interesting move over the telecasting issue of the tournament. Recently, Essen Group has declared that the first 30 minutes of each of the 20 matches will be telecast live on all channels of Zee Network except Zee Cinema and Zee Studio. However, Zee Sports will telecast all the matches live from top to bottom. However, Essel Group could not yet make any clear cut decision over the advertising policy on other channels. All the matches will be held at the Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula in Chandigarh.

Zee Network is one of the widely known India-based television network which is available in 125 counties with its 25 channels. It has over 550 million subscribers around the world. Regarding this latest move, Essel Group senior vice president Ashish Kaul said they wanted to reach the much wider audience with ICL Twenty20 competition.

Economic Times reported:

“We have decided to put domestic cricket on a bigger platform and plan to make it available to a much wider audience. Zee Network is available in 125 countries and has a subscriber base of over 550 million. We believe this is a landmark desicion for domestic cricket.”

However, the advertisers are still in dilemma regarding this competition. BCCI organized Indian Premier League is said to be held in April next year. So, advertisers are thinking about the matter twice. Beer Company SABMiller has recently opted out from ICL. Moreover, ICL authority could not yet confirm ground and team sponsorships for the tournament.

I think, it is a good more by the ICL authority to telecast the first 30 minutes of the matches on all the televisions of Zee Networks. However, it would be better if Essel Group could telecast the whole matches live in other television. Twenty20 matches take only three and half hours. At least, Zee Networks could telecast one match live in all the televisions each day.

 
Kamrul Hasan has an informative article about ICL and if you read it then you will know 25 Things about ICL.