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Lord MacLaurin scuttles bid to bundle World Cup telecast rights

Our Correspondent in London

The bidding for television rights for the cricket World Cup in South Africa in 2003 and the West Indies in 2007 has been suspended.

The International Cricket Council meeting to decide the issue was suspended after Lord MacLaurin, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, called for a review of the entire process.

The ICC, led by president Jagmohan Dalmiya, had planned to bundle the rights of the two tournaments and various other mini-World Cups. Dalmiya's term ends next month.

The three main bidders, Zee TV, World Sports and TWI, were short-listed from the original seven bidders chosen last month. Zee, Asia's biggest television conglomerate, was able to table a late offer to secure the rights for the World Cups, offering 300 million pounds.

World Sports and Mark McCormack's TWI were to make presentations to the ICC in Paris on Tuesday, bidding 370 million pounds and 280 million pounds, respectively.

But after Lord MacLaurin's intervention, all seven bidders may be invited to table their offers at the ICC's annual meeting in the presence of all 18 members of the executive board.

It was earlier announced at ICC's emergency meeting earlier this month that ICC presidents and chief executives would henceforth be excluded from the finance and marketing committees.