In a total departure from the stated policy of Pakistan that sports and politics should not be mixed, The Federal Cabinet decided on Tuesday Pakistan’s all-white ball tour to England would not be aired by the state broadcaster PTV in the country as television rights for the event are held with an Indian broadcaster. Pakistan cricket team is scheduled to play three ODIs and three T20Is against England starting from July 8th.
The fiasco highlights the negligence of those authorities handling the sport in the tenure of the ace cricketer-cum-political leader and Prime Minister Imran Khan. Why did the authorities not approach the England Cricket Board months ago to fix the issue when they did know that the Indian companies had grabbed the lucrative contracts and that Pakistan was not ready to do business with India in the wake of the August 5, 2019 decision when India-held Kashmir’s special status was revoked?
While the members of the cabinet may be patting themselves on the back, there is apparently no realization that the decision of the cabinet will of great financial benefit to the Indian network Ten Sports, which surprisingly still enjoys television landing rights in the territory of Pakistan and will not only be airing the event exclusively but will also be taking all the commercial advertising revenue out of the country, through a fronting company in Pakistan.
According to insiders, cabinet members, particularly the PM, were not convinced of the presentation made by the National Broadcaster to present its case, not all facts were presented to the cabinet including the huge consequential financial gains to another Indian entity “TEN SPORTS” operating in Pakistan.
Ten Sports has been an Indian entity for many years now. It was purchased by Zee Entertainment in 2006 from the Dubai-based Taj Television owned by business magnate Abdul Rahman Al-Bukhatir. The channel again changed hands and was bought by Sony Pictures Network India for US$ 385 million from Zee Network in an all cash deal in 2016.
Our worthy cabinet members perhaps do not realize that global television rights of virtually all major cricketing events including the ICC are divided between Star, owned by US-based Disney and Sony Pictures Network (India). By stopping PTV from doing business with these networks, the fate of PTV Sports has been effectively sealed and also opened the door for “third parties”, “middlemen” and “frontend” to step in.
The Indian factor is a lame excuse as PCB continues to pay millions to the Indian media companies to broadcast PSL. This was in the past especially, in 2019, Ehsan Mani gave the production rights to IMGR, which backed out in the wake of Pulwama attack and a Pakistani consortium came for an overnight rescue. Again the love of PCB for the Indian production debacle in 2019 was not enough and they gave the production rights of PSL 2020 to an unknown Indian company, fronted by a dubious office in Singapore. It was one of the worst ever productions with so many glitches throughout the event. In 2021, PCB had to award the contract to a local company again for another home series but at the same time, the government was not ready to buy production rights from Indian companies.
Decades ago, the PTV came up with its own Sports Channel, which turned around the revenue inflows of the PTV. Year after year, we have reached such an impasse that our own cricket series is being denied to us.
This is neither cricket nor sportsman spirit!