ESPN GETS SCARE

Sports caster ESPN India got a fright when the Cable Sena, a loose association of cable operators backed by the fundamentalist political party, the Shiv Sena, announced that it would ensure that not a single cable operator in Maharashtra State - which has Mumbai as its capital -- would carry the telecast of the India-Pakistan cricket series on his network.

The Shiv Sena has been at the forefront of Maharashtra politics for the past five years and its chief Bal Thackeray was vehement that he would not allow the Indo-Pakistan cricket series to be played on Indian soil. His supporters dug up a pitch at one of the cricket stadiums to show that they meant business.

The consequences would be dire, Thackeray had warned, if any matches were played between the two nations in India. The cable TV wing of the Shiv Sena, had also announced a simultaneous ban on ESPN which has the rights to telecast the matches.

However, the ESPN India management got some relief after Thackeray relented to the pleading of the BJP-led government at the Centre and declared that his party would not sabotage the cricket series this year. The Cable Sena withdrew its opposition and said that cable operators could carry ESPN. ESPN is seeking to rake in close to Rs 500 million in advertising revenues on account of the Indo-Pak test cricket series, and the triangular one-day cricket series following it. A ban on carriage of the live telecasts would have resulted in a loss of revenue for ESPN.