MUMBAI: The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has appointed sports marketing agency Octagon CSI as consultants to advise the ECB on the upcoming domestic media rights negotiations beyond September 2005.

That is when current contracts expire. In India, domestic English cricket airs on ESPN and Star Sports.

A division of the Interpublic Group, Octagon CSI will also be responsible for the servicing of this contract for the four-year period. ECB chose Octagon CSI on the basis of their level of experience and knowledge.

The ECB is hoping to extract optimum value from the broadcast rights, covering all tiers of cricket in England and Wales. This includes all the home Test and one-day matches, international 20-20 cricket and the domestic
county programme. The ECB states that broadcast negotiations come at a time when cricket in England and Wales is thriving. The England Test team has reached number two position in the world rankings for the first time behind Australia.

The ground attendance for this years NatWest Series increased by 18 per cent over 2003. Total attendance for npower Test series, where England is thrashing the West Indies, is up by 28 per cent over the corresponding period in 2003