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New Delhi: The freeze in cricketing relations between India and Pakistan is not only hampering the drafting of a new Future Tours Programme (FTP), it has also put all calculations on hold for the BCCI's new TV rights deal for home games, which is up for renewal in March 2010.
Since the ICC is finding it difficult to chalk out the new FTP - the definitive schedule of all international matches from 2012 to 2018 - the BCCI, in turn, finds itself unable to contemplate long-term deals with broadcasters for its home matches.
In June, when the ICC board members met in London, it was agreed that a quick drafting of the FTP would take priority. But the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) insistence on including Indo-Pak matches in the FTP has put all parties in a bind, since the BCCI doesn't know when the government will defreeze cricketing relations with the neighbours.
Sources suggested nothing would be decided till the ICC board members meet again in October during the Champions Trophy to take a fresh look at the FTP proposals submitted by different boards.
"Lack of clarity over bilateral cricket between India and Pakistan is the main cause for the delay. We are losing valuable time. We need to know something from the ICC to prepare a tender based on matches to be played between 2012 and 2018. The ICC will have to announce something which is flexible enough to base financial calculations on," a top BCCI official told TOI.
"We can't take a call on when and how India can again play Pakistan. We have to strictly adhere to the government's rule book," the official added.
The ICC, though, sounded upbeat about the prospects of a new FTP. "We are going to announce the FTP soon. In the next board meeting in South Africa on Oct 8 and 9, the ICC hopes that members will reach an agreement," an ICC official said from Dubai. But with almost all members wary of playing in Pakistan, is an FTP which includes Indo-Pak match-ups feasible?
Currently, BCCI has a four-year deal with Nimbus (from March 1, 2006 to March 31, 2010 for 23 Test matches and around 60 One-dayers), worth $638 million. Industry sources say that if India and Pakistan can resume bilateral cricket soon, the BCCI can generate around $1 billion in telecast rights for home matches, and also when global rights are renewed in 2010.
