IPL veiled from Australian television viewers

Melbourne: The Aussie television viewers will miss all the action of the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League, starting in Chennai today, due to a stalemate involving Australian television networks and Indian cricket administrators.

`Network Ten` held the rights for the first four seasons of the IPL but declined to broadcast last year`s tournament, mainly because of the poor ratings and also because it coincided with a diversification of its One HD channel away from consisting solely of sport, according to `The Age`.

The newspaper also reported that it is believed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has sought a hefty price whenever a new IPL TV rights contract has been discussed with Australian networks.

So now the only option left for the Australian cricket fans is to watch the eight-week tournament via the internet, streamed live at ipl.indiatimes.com and youtube.com/indiatimes.

The successor to Ten for the now-lapsed IPL rights, Fox Sports, is about to begin its broadcast of the West Indies Tests, while on weekends it has significant AFL, rugby league, rugby union and soccer commitments.

PTI