The 1990s television revolution of Indian cricket and BCCI’s rise to riches

In a shocker to Doordarshan, the BCCI sold the rights of India’s home series against England in early 1993 to Trans World International for $600,000, Doordarshan had to pay TWI $1 million to telecast the matches in India.

We have discussed the rise of Indian cricket coverage, first on radio, then on television on these pages. Yet, for years, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) did not make any money from the cricket played in India. The idea had not even occurred to them.

The BCCI’s revenue from these matches came from on-field advertisements and ticket sales. Doordarshan had exclusive rights to these, and yet, they did not pay the BCCI anything. If anything, the BCCI sometimes paid Doordarshan for coverage.

Then, in late 1991, something significant happened: South Africa returned from a two-decade exile to international cricket. Throughout the 1980s, South Africa had lured several teams to play ‘Rebel’ tours. These touring cricketers were paid with amounts so exorbitant that they were willing to risk life bans by their boards.

The driving force behind these tours was Dr Ali Bacher, South Africa’s last male Test captain before they had been ostracised. Back in the capacity of manager for the 1991-92 tour of India, Bacher was keen for live telecast of the three historical ODIs back home.

But when Bacher asked for a rate, there was no immediate response, for the BCCI had — as mentioned above — no idea of how much to charge. After an internal meeting, they decided on $30,000 for the series. Bacher offered $40,000 per match — four times the amount the BCCI had in mind.

The BCCI finally realised how much money there was in cricket. For India’s next home series, against England in early 1993, they sold the rights to Trans World International (TWI), and made $600,000 from the deal.

This came as a rude shock for Doordarshan, who had to pay TWI $1 million to telecast the matches in India.

The series also demonstrated the difference in quality of broadcast between the two. A YouTube search for cricket matches in India in the 1980s will tell anyone, at once, how archaic Doordarshan’s coverage used to be.

“I had seen a picture of the 1987 World Cup final when [Mike] Gatting played his reverse sweep; it looked like it was snowing in Kolkata. Viewers in the UK would not have put up with it,” noted Andrew Wildblood, who played a pivotal role in bringing the TWI to Indian cricket.

TWI’s quality of coverage came as a refreshing change from Doordarshan.

But Doordarshan were not going to accept defeat just like that. Later that year, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) hosted an ODI tournament — the Hero Cup, after the sponsor. Pakistan opted out, but India, West Indies, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe promised a keen contest.

Doordarshan offered Rs 10 million for the tournament, which was no match for TWI’s offer of Rs 17.6 million and 70 per cent share of global revenue.

Doordarshan now escalated the matter. Two days before the Hero Cup, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry cited the archaic 1885 Indian Telegraph Act, which made the Indian government agencies the only ones authorised to “telecast any event live by uplinking signals from Indian soil”.

They also refused to pay TWI a single rupee. This meant that millions of Indian fans did not get to watch the early stages of the Hero Cup — a tournament on Indian soil featuring India. As a result, even the on-field advertising was minimal, even during India’s match against Sri Lanka at Kanpur.

Things did not stop at that. The customs departments at Delhi, Bombay, and Calcutta airports seized TWI equipment: apparently, TWI had not obtained approval from government officials. It took a Supreme Court order to get these released.

But pressure came from outside, especially when South African fans did not get to watch their match against Zimbabwe. With the West Indies match impending, Dr Bacher expressed concerns.

The matter was eventually resolved, and the Indian fans did get to watch some ODIs of the 11-match tournament.

The legal battles continued until February 1995, when Justices PB Sawant, BP Jeevan Reddy, and S Mohan passed an order that remains a landmark in the history of Indian cricket.

While classifying “the airwaves or frequencies” as “public property,” they added that “the right to impart and receive information is a species of the right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.”

“A citizen has a fundamental right to use the best means of imparting and receiving information and as such to have access to telecasting for the purpose.”

The order thwarted Doordarshan’s attempts to exercise its “government body” status to acquire sole rights.

Mark Mascarenhas of WorldTel had meanwhile acquired the rights for the 1996 World Cup. WorldTel then sold the rights of the World Cup to every territory around the world — though the out-of-court settlement with Doordarshan happened only a week before the 1996 World Cup.

For the World Cup, WorldTel had guaranteed the Pakistan-India-Sri Lanka Organising Committee (PILCOM) $1.4 million — “unheard-of money in cricket back then”.

This was a watershed moment in cricket, for the BCCI fully understood the volume of the Indian television audience, particularly in the evening. Until 1992, India had hosted only two day-night ODIs, in the multipurpose Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.

In 1993, Hyderabad and Calcutta had floodlit ODIs. For the 1996 World Cup, the BCCI added Gwalior, Bombay, Bangalore, Madras, and Mohali to the list. They hosted 12 day-night ODIs in that year alone.

Live cricket replaced soaps across the nation, still mostly restricted to Doordarshan, in the one-television-set households. Advertisement slots were sold for astronomical sums.

The IPL catapulted the BCCI’s revenue to unthinkable levels, firmly establishing them as the richest cricket board in the world. In 2022, they sold the IPL rights for five years to Disney Star and Viacom18 for $6.2 billion.