NMC urges ICC to mediate in BCCI row over coverage restrictions

Media organisations have urged the ICC to intervene in a row with the BCCI over coverage restrictions of the Test series between India and England.

Johannesburg: Media organisations have urged the International Cricket Council (ICC) to intervene in a row with the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) over coverage restrictions of the Test series between India and England, saying the dispute was damaging the game.

The News Media Coalition, writing on behalf of a group of news agencies, newspapers and publishers, urged the ICC to use its influence and global standing to convince the BCCI to lift the curbs which have set off a text and photo blackout of the series. “We recognise that the ICC does not have direct authority of the media policy of individual national cricket bodies but view the ICC as the collective custodians of the good name of the sport, fair play and the promotion of the game,” a website quoted the letter, as saying. “The BCCI`s policy of locking out an important sector of the news industry risks damaging much that the ICC has sought to achieve,” the letter added. The ICC has drawn up proposals for Twenty20 cricket to eventually become an Olympic sport. Kevan Gosper, chairperson of the International Olympic Committee`s press commission, is among those to have criticised the BCCI stance, calling it a direct attack on the freedom of the media. The accreditation dispute is the latest between the BCCI and media organisations to mar the series. ANI