Purists, be alarmed. In Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi’s patriotism-driven initiative to bring cricket — and other sport — telecasts to non-cable homes, one-day cricket has been prioritised above Tests. The minister is ready to rush through the ordinance before the one-day match against Sri Lanka on February 8, making it mandatory for private broadcasters to share live, advertisement-free feed with Prasar Bharati of major sporting events. Of course, cricket leads Dasmunshi’s wish list, and so it would telecast all international cricket matches played at home, and all ODIs away. If the quibble about Tests sounds facetious, it actually shows how arbitrary the minister’s move is. It is being hurried along through the wrong route — ordinances are meant to be passed only in exceptional circumstances, and an India-Sri Lanka match cannot be considered one — and its content is finalised not upon a rational discussion with concerned parties, but upon the dictatorial, acquisitive instincts that guided the I&B ministry pre-liberalisation.

There is nothing wrong in forging mechanisms whereby telecasts of high interest are made available to the largest possible number of viewers. But such an arrangement must be rational. The current ordinance is not. First, for

Dasmunshi to say that his ministry is acting in public interest is not enough. It did, recall, make a losing bid for the telecast rights. And its pleas in court for the recent one-day series against South Africa betray a definite commercial interest. Note, for one, its impatience with the court-mediated seven-minute delayed telecast from feed supplied by Nimbus, the holder of telecast rights for matches in India. Those seven minutes did not hurt the interests of non-cable homes, but they did give the private broadcaster an edge in cable homes, homes Doordarshan clearly wants to access to gain higher ad revenue — in total contravention of an existing contractual agreement, in this case between Nimbus and the BCCI.

... contd.