MUMBAI: The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) has lined up a host of international broadcasters, showing that the T20 league format is gaining currency with the popularity of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Delhi-based sports events licensing company Sporty Solutionz, which has the international media distribution mandate for the newly launched BPL, has tied in broadcasters in key cricket following markets.

The company, which had recently roped in ESPN Star Sports as the India broadcast rights holder for a period of three years, has also signed up Geo TV as the broadcast partner in Pakistan for three years, Maharaja TV in Sri Lanka, SuperSport in South Africa, and CricOne in West Asia, who have come on board only for the first season of the tournament.

The company also has an arrangement with NTV UK, which will carry the Bengali feed of the tournament to tap the Bangladeshi expat population in that country. In Australia, the company was in talks with Setanta but things did not materialise.

Channel 9 Bangladesh, which has the international broadcast rights for the tournament, appointed Sporty Solutionz as global distribution partner excluding Bangladesh, where the broadcaster will televise the matches on its platform.

Says Sporty Solutionz CEO Ashish Chadha, ?We have a three year deal with Channel 9, which is the broadcast rights holder for this league. They have given the licensing rights to us. We have picked the overseas broadcast rights excluding Bangladesh and subsequently we are distributing the event.?

Chadha reveals that the ad sales for telecast on ESS will be handled by Aidem Ventures on behalf of Sporty Solutions.Without disclosing the financials of any of these deals, he admits that he is looking at the tournament from a long-term perspective.

Modeled on the lines of IPL, the BPL, which is currently underway, features six teams - Barisal Burners, Chittagong Kings, Khulna Royal Bengals, Sylhet Royals, Dhaka Gladiators and Duronto Rajshahi, who will play each other twice in a round-robin format over 33 matches held in Chittagong and Dhaka.

The tournament features big names like Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Herschelle Gibbs, Muttiah Muralitharan and Shahid Afridi, who is not featuring in this year?s tournament due to clash with national duties.

Sporty Solutionz also handles the digital rights of several celebrities both cricket and Bollywood.

MUMBAI: The Asian Tour has appointed ESPN Star Sports? old hand Mike Kerr as its CEO based at the Tour?s headquarters in Singapore.

Kerr will assume his role from 16 March. He will work closely with Kyi Hla Han, the Executive Chairman of the Asian Tour, and help manage the strategic direction of the Tour with the aim of continuing to build and promote the global profile of Asia?s elite professional golf circuit.

Han said the appointment will also be focused on generating greater playing opportunities for the Asian Tour members.

"On behalf of our Board of Directors and membership, I am delighted to announce that Mike Kerr has agreed to take up the position as CEO of the Asian Tour. He has vast senior management experience in Asia and we believe he will add value to what is already a strong management team on the Asian Tour," said Han.

Kerr joins the Asian Tour with over 17 years of senior management experience in Asia. For the last 12 years, he has worked with pan-Asian broadcaster ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) in a number of senior roles across the region.

In his last role, Kerr was Vice President of Affiliate and Multimedia Sales, responsible for ESS? channel business across Southeast Asia. He also has extensive advertising and sponsorship experience having previously led ESS? sponsorship strategy globally and managed direct sales in a number of Asian and international markets.

"I am looking forward to joining the Asian Tour which has grown immensely over the past few years. The Asian Tour is a global brand and these are exciting times for the game at the highest level in Asia. I?m delighted to be a part of it," said Kerr.

Kerr holds an Honours degree in civil engineering and a Masters degree in applied environmental science from the University of Edinburgh and Queens University, Belfast respectively.

MUMBAI: The Bangladesh Premier League, a format borrowed from the cash-rich Indian Premier League, has roped in ESPN Star Sports as the official broadcaster of the tourney.

The Asian sports network has acquired the telecast rights of BPL for a period of three years, starting 2012 running through to 2014.

ESS will showcase the tournament across Asia, along with Channel 9 which will broadcast the tournament domestically in Bangladesh.

The matches will be telecast live on Star Cricket and Star Sports.

The BPL will feature six teams - Barisal Burners, Chittagong Kings, Khulna Royal Bengals, Sylhet Royals, Dhaka Gladiators and Duronto Rajshahi.

The six teams will play each other twice in a round-robin format over 33 matches held in Chittagong and Dhaka.

As the biggest cricketing event of Bangladesh, BPL will feature some of the top names in cricket from around the globe with 21 days of non-stop world class cricket action and entertainment.

ESS director-programming Joyee Biswas said, ?We are delighted to support the expansion of T20 to Bangladesh by bringing this exciting new tournament to cricket fans in Asia.

?As the rights holder for some of the globe?s best cricket events including ICC World T20, CL T20, India-Australia test matches, ODI tri-series between Australia, India and Sri Lanka, and England-Australia ODIs, we are pleased to add Bangladesh Premier League to our portfolio of top cricket coverage.?

Channel 9 MD Enayetur Rahman said, ?As the first GEC channel of Bangladesh with a mix of Sports and Entertainment, and the producer of BPL T20, we are pleased to partner with ESPN STAR Sports to bring BPL to cricket lovers and look forward to a long term relationship.?

Running from 9-29 February, the tournament will feature a mix of 1-2 matches per day. On days when two games are played, the first match will begin at 2 pm local time followed by the second match at 6.30 pm.

In addition to the Icon player from Bangladesh, each team is allowed nine foreign players, five of whom can play per match per team. The opening ceremony of BPL will commence at 5 pm local time today.

MUMBAI: Asian sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has announced two new appointments strengthening its Cricket Syndication Team.

Guy Le Grew, who previously supported the syndication team in his capacity as Assistant General Counsel will now assume the role of Director, Syndication. Assuming a wider commercial role, Le Grew will now be responsible for handling sales and client servicing activities in addition to providing acquisition and legal support on all cricket deals, with responsibility for territories in the UK and Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada and South Africa.

ESS senior VP corporate development, cricket rights Anurag Dahiya said, "I am delighted to have someone of Guy‘s calibre take a wider role in our team as we enter a new year. We look forward to leveraging his proven negotiation and commercial expertise to enhance our global relationships and activities."

Further to Le Grew‘s appointment senior manager of cricket syndication Sunil Manoharan has been tasked with a more independent role in managing clients in the territories of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, West Indies, Middle East and others, and will continue to coordinate various cricket event operations.

Both new appointments will strengthen ESS‘ Cricket Syndication Team with a further injection of legal, commercial, broadcasting and production experience.

Prior to joining ESS, Le Grew was based in the United Kingdom, where he worked as a Senior Legal Advisor in the Legal and Business Affairs team at Sky Sports, Britain‘s largest sports broadcaster. During his five-year tenure, he was responsible for delivering a full range of legal support across the business including the negotiation and implementation of a variety of acquisition, production and sponsorship deals, as well as providing extensive contractual and legal advice.

He has more than 12 years of legal experience, having started his career with Middletons Lawyers in Australia in the Corporate/Commercial Mergers and Acquisitions division. He then moved to the United Kingdom to a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland as In-house Corporate Legal Advisor and later moved to British Sky Broadcasting before relocating to Singapore to join ESS in January 2010.

Manoharan brings with him more than 15 years of Broadcast experience and prior to his current role in Sports Rights Sales and Management, he produced content for television including live sport, magazine shows and promos. Since joining ESS more than eleven years ago, Manoharan has specialised in live sports broadcasting with a particular focus on cricket, and has produced live cricket from most of the iconic cricket stadiums from around the world.

MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has entered into a five-year contract for the exclusive rights to broadcast Cricket Australia?s (CA) domestic and home international matches.

The telecast rights are across various platforms including television, internet, mobile and radio covering the entire Asian region.

As a part of this deal, the current Future Tours Program (FTP) sees ESPN Star Sports broadcasting more than 191 days of live International cricket action from Australia, including 27 Test Matches, 44 One Day Internationals and 12 Twenty20 games.

This broadcast deal with Cricket Australia will give ESPN Star Sports rights to showcase two India series. India is slated to play four test matches and a tri-series with England as the third team in the 2014-2015 season. This tri-series, featuring India, Australia and England and scheduled right before the ICC World Cup in 2015. India will visit Australia again for seven ODIs and two Twenty20 matches in the year 2015-2016.

Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said: ?We are delighted that a telecaster of ESPN Star Sports? standing and class will be putting Australian cricket in front of so many cricket fans. ESPN Star Sports has been a wonderful and innovative partner for a long while and to be able to extend this critical partnership is great news for us all as well as for the cricket loving public.?

Over the next five years, all of the leading teams will be visiting Australia. In addition to the Ashes between arch rivals England and Australia in the year 2013-2014 which, based on the current FTP, will see 5 test matches, 5 ODIs and 3 T20 matches, other top cricket nations including South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies and New Zealand will tour Australia to test their mettle in the fiercely competitive environment of cricket down under.

ESS MD Manu Sawhney said, ?We are very pleased to announce this partnership with Cricket Australia with whom we share a very strong relationship. Australian Cricket has always been exciting and is played with utmost competitiveness in a super charged atmosphere which makes for every fan?s delight. It is therefore not surprising that it is called the ultimate test for any cricket player.?

?This partnership with Cricket Australia is a testament to our commitment to serve our fans with more action packed cricket for years to come. With so many premium international series including two India tours and Ashes along with a robust mix of increasingly popular domestic tournaments, fans in the Indian sub-continent can look forward to top quality action from down under on ESPN Star Sports. Now, with such an enviable line-up of cricket including Cricket Australia, England & Wales Cricket Board, International Cricket Council and Champions League Twenty20, we are pleased to further strengthen our position as the biggest cricket network and the No.1 sports content provider in Asia.?

In addition to the international cricket action, ESS also plans to broadcast Cricket Australia?s domestic cricket over 280 days. This includes popular tournaments such as the KFC Big Bash T20, the 4 day Bupa Sheffield Shield tournament & the Ryobi One Day Cup.

The top two teams from this premier tournament qualify for the coveted Nokia Champions League Twenty20. Star performers also play for various club teams in the IPL.

India?s forthcoming tour of Australia starting December 26, 2011 will feature 4 Test matches, 2 Twenty20 matches and a tri-angular One day series with Sri Lanka as the third team. The tri-series will have as many as 15 one day internationals. All the matches of this series will be televised live on STAR Cricket and STAR Cricket HD and the tri-series will also be broadcast on ESPN.

Next year a lot of boards come up for renewal. ESS has to try and hold on to England which it is expected to do in the early part of 2012. Ten Sports has to hold on to Pakistan, Sri Lanka and West Indies. Of course the Pakistan rights value will depend on whether or not India plays its arch-rivals.

Earlier this year Ten Sports had renewed the rights to South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Then there is New Zealand. While MultiScreenMedia has those rights it sub licensed a tour of Pakistan to that country last year to Nimbus. Bangladesh comes up for renewal as well. Those rights are with Nimbus which also has the rights for India cricket.

MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) and Pakistan Television (PTV) jointly bid and bagged the four-year telecast rights to the International Cricket Council (ICC) events for the Pakistan territory, a top official said.

The rights through 2015 will include the ODI World Cup, the Twenty20 World Cup and other ICC events.

"We jointly bid for the ICC rights with PTV for the Pakistan territory. We were awarded the rights by ESPN Star Sports," said Ten Sports chief executive officer Atul Pande, while refusing to disclose the financial terms of the deal. 

ESPN Star Sports has the global rights for the ICC events from 2007-2015.

"While PTV will have the terrestrial rights, we will keep the cable and satellite rights," Pande said.

Ten Sports has a long relationship with PTV and has been syndicating its properties to PTV for terrestrial telecast.

"We have a partnership with PTV to build Pakistani cricket. We, for instance, will be syndicating the rights for Pakistan-Zimbabwe and Pakistan-Sri Lanka cricket series to PTV for terrestrial telecast. We also jointly bid for the ICC property as part of our deepening relationship with PTV," Pande said.