MUMBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced the availability of its Invitation to Tender (ITT) document for audio-visual rights for ICC Events from late 2007 to 2015.

This is the latest step in the process of exploiting its rights for the eight-year period and follows a series of meetings between the ICC and interested broadcasters and agencies over the past month.

Those broadcasters and agencies wishing to pursue an interest and receive the ITT can do so by applying to the ICC through email.

Once they have done that they will be sent a confidentiality letter. When they sign that letter and pay a fee to the ICC they will receive the tender documentation. The deadline for submission of tenders is 7 November 2006.

ICC CEO Malcolm Speed said, “This is the latest stage of the process to sell the ICC’s commercial and broadcast rights and it is a hugely significant and exciting time for cricket.
“We have already been gratified and encouraged by the meetings we have held with many interested parties and those meetings have indicated to us that the level of interest in these rights is extremely high.

“The sale of our rights gives us the opportunity to place cricket on a sound financial footing for the next eight years and, by doing that, it will provide all our Members with the chance to both sustain and grow the game. Yhroughout this whole process we have only one aim in mind – securing the best deal for cricket”.

Included in the eight-year period under discussion are 18 ICC tournaments with two World Cups, in Asia (2011) and Australasia (2015), and a minimum of three ICC Champions Trophy tournaments.

Also included are the first two ICC Twenty20 World Championships, in South Africa (2007) and England (2009), the latter taking place in the ICC’s centenary year.

And there are Cricket World Cup Qualifiers, four ICC U/19 Cricket World Cups, and, for the first time, the Women’s Cricket World Cup, with two tournaments scheduled for 2009 (Australia) and 2013 (India) in the eight-year timeframe.

Meanwhile the BBC's head of sport, Roger Mosey has said it would bid for live English cricket rights in 2010 when the ECB’s existing deal with pay-broadcaster BSkyB expires. He said that cricket should follow the model used for football, where rights are sold in packages, allowing several broadcasters to share the rights for live games and highlights.

He has been quoted in media reports saying that a multi-platform model with BSkyB having live Premiership games; the BBC showing Match of the Day and live FA Cup games; ITV and BSkyB sharing the Champions League worked well.

Further details and updates of the sales process will be announced by the ICC in due course.