Sachin-McGrath duel to be missed by Mumbai viewers

Mumbai, Sep 15 (UNI) Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar's duel with Australian great pace bowler Glenn McGrath, both coming off a long lay-off will be missed by fans in this cricket capital due to the row between cable operators and the tournament's TV rights holders in India.

The bone of contention between the Multi System Operators (MSOs) and Zee Sports channel is the refusal of some MSOs in Mumbai from signing the subscription agreement with the channel which became a pay channel in June 2005, a media release from Zee network said today.

The TDSAT tribunal today rejected the plea filed by IN Cable, one of the MSOs, seeking restoration of their Zee Sports signal even in the absence of an agreement between the operators and Zee Turner, the distributing company of Zee Sports, the release said.

During court proceedings today, the channel had offered bulk discount to In Cable with an intention to settle the matter, which was not accepted by the operators, the release said.

Since In Cable was unwilling to sign the subscription agreement, TDSAT rejected the operators' plea for interim relief, according to the release by the channel.

The next hearing of the case is slated for September 19 and, if an agreement is not reached by the two parties before that date, the court will take a decision, the release added.

Zee Turner, distributor of Zee Sports, has been negotiating with the operators to sign the subscription agreement for the pay channel but to no avail, the release said.

When Zee Turner turned down the operators unreasonable demand, some of them, including In Cable, moved TDSAT arguing that their viewers were suffering due to the channel not being available.

The first match of the series on September 12 between Australia and the West Indies was missed by most Mumbai television viewers though yesterday's second match, between India and the West Indies, was made available by the channel even with the dispute not having been resolved, the release said.

''We cannot allow our signals on any of the networks that have not signed the subscription agreement with us, especially since majority of the country has already signed and is watching the tri-series,'' said Zee Turner CEO Arun Poddar.

Zee Sports has bought the telecast rights from the Indian cricket board for cricket matches to be played by India in offshore venues over the next five years.

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