IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla to recuse himself from Monday's media rights auction

Courtesy: PTI

New Delhi: IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla has recused himself from the upcoming media rights auction of the T20 League, scheduled to be held in Mumbai on September 4.

The Congress politician and senior BCCI functionary has intimated the BCCI top brass about his absence. Shukla has taken the decision for the sake of smooth IPL auction as he faces some allegations of conflict of interest.

Shukla categorically rubbished allegations that BAG Films, which is owned by Shukla's wife Anuradha Prasad, has a tie-up with Star Sports, one of the potential bidders for TV broadcast rights.

"Yes I have decided to recuse myself from the IPL media rights auctions and hence I will not be present in Mumbai on September 4," Shukla told PTI on Friday.

"I have heard that someone has said that he will file an application in the Court about my alleged Conflict of Interest despite getting a clean chit from former BCCI ombudsman Justice Retired AP Shah. I want BCCI's auction process to go on smoothly and that's why I have decided to stay away despite having no conflict of interest," Shukla added.

The BCCI is expecting a windfall from the IPL media rights auction with estimated earnings of over 20,000 crore through the traditional bidding process.

There are three categories -- TV broadcast, mobile and digital rights that the major companies will be vying for.

All the rights will be for a period of five years from 2018-2022.

Telecommunications major Airtel and web service provider Yahoo have also bought bid document. Along with them, the other two new companies are BAMTech and DAZN/Perform Group, who also have bought documents. Both BAMTech and DAZN/Perform group are working in the digital space.

The 18 eligible companies, who bought bid documents last year before the process was stalled are: Star India, Amazon Seller Services, Followon Interactive Media, Taj TV India, Sony Pictures Networks, Times Internet, Supersport International, Reliance Jio Digital, Gulf DTH FZ LLC, GroupM Media, beIN, Econet Media, SKY UK, ESPN Digital Media, BTG Legal Services, BT PLC, Twitter, Facebook Inc.