Come 14 February. The Kiwis will confront England in the first match of the World Cup to be played at Ahmedabad. India. But Indians may not be able to watch it on their tellies; thanks to Doordarshan’s tangle with World Tel over the telecast rights in India, keeping millions of viewers all over India on tenterhooks

Before the month long battle between the bat and the ball, a war of words in court between Doordarshan (DD) and World Tel is hitting the headlines almost everyday. Long ago PILCOM. the organisers sold the exclusive rights to World Tel to show the matches live for $10 million. DD. the government-owned organisation signed a MOU with World Tel on May 14. 1944 for exclusive cover K rights in India. DD paid first two Instalments on time, but failed to pay the third one by October 31, 1995 On November 1, World Tel promptly terminated its agreement with DD and signed on agreement with STAR TV. Such repudiation of MOU and moreover selling of rights to its bitter competitor. Star TV. made DD nirious and they went to the Delhi High Court. The legal battle is still going on.

A verbal slugfest between DD and World Tel has dominated the In-court and off-court war. In the legal wrart-

gle between the two? accusations are being, hurled with great vigour. But such acrimony is only obfuscating the whole tournament.

Not only the viewers, the sponsors of this mega event are also spending sleepless nights rrc, the main sponsor has spent more than Rs 35 crore to bag the title sponsorship Cocoa Cola and Visa also have big budgets for this tourney. All three companies had earlier planned to market their product extensively through advertisements on DD. But. as things stand now. such plans are likely to go haywtre.

This World Cup is surely the greatest money-spinner of all time. Never before has so much money been invested in cricket, the most glamorous and publicised sport in the subcontinent with an estimated 1.5 billion viewers. What is intriguing is the intransigent attitude of DD. World Tel estimates that the television revenues will cross the $20 million mark — more thgn four times the gross amount in the last World Cup. It is telecasting which is the main source of Income today and not gate money. No official In DD is pragmatic enough to envisage that it's better for them to bury the hatchet with World Tel and PILCOM as early as possible and earn the huge ad revenue amounting to more than Ra 80 crore.

It is no secret that all thio tug of war is the result of long standing animosity between the Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCD and

DD. to be precise, and Jag-' mohan Dalmiya. the secretary of BCC1 and RaUkanta Basu., Director General of DD. Recently R Basu was transferred from the post of DG. an indication that the government does not fully endorse DD's . stand in the tiff with World .• Tel.

What is feared by the-cricket lovers in India is that. . even if DD loses the legal tussle, it may deny uplinking facilities to Grandslam, whq have been contracted by World Tel. to produce the telecast (Television images —, "signals' — are distributed by satellites which have to b^,;i accessed, or uplinked, from " earth stations. Only DD has direct uplinking facilities in. ... India). In 1993, Indian view-, ers could not see the first two matches of the Hero Cup j after DD refused to give TWl v uplinking facility. 1In

But there is a hope. In thqA.i year of election, political ■. realities may force a compromise. The Central Govern-r-.t ment know the hawla hulla-j^ balloo ia more easily tackled than the pyrotechnics that , could erupt if cricket was #.' given a go by. So viewers aBi< over India are still groping-, for an answer to the question, "Will I get to see the. World Cup live on television?" As things stand today, the ann;, swer is "No". But today's "No" could be tomorrow’s "Yes".

You cannot predict today.-, who will be the loser In the : final at Lahore on March 17^ But one thing is sure that if is the telecast Imbroglio is not., sorted out. it will make everyone a loser in India. ok.