The Pakistan Cricket Board announced on Wednesday it would be inviting bids for its media rights to international cricket played in Pakistan between 2008-09 and 2012-13, with the current $43 million Ten Sports and ARY deal shortly to end after five years.

Former ICC President Ehsan Mani is acting as an advisor to the PCB after he helped the ICC secure their first major media rights deal in 2000, when they sold for $550 over seven years. Mani told Bigstarcricket he would expect the rights to fetch around $100 million.

The buyer will now receive footage of Australia’s tour to Pakistan that has been rescheduled to take place in a split series over two years, in April 2009 for a one-day series and October 2010 for the Tests – in affect adding two attractive events to a deal that would otherwise not have been in there.
 
Pakistan cricket is presently broadcast live on television in more than 50 countries around the world including all the major cricketing nations as well as the Middle East, South East Asia and the USA. The PCB’s new package of media rights goes beyond the traditional television to include the growing distribution methods of broadband, internet, internet protocol television and mobile telephones.

“For the new five-year tenure, the PCB is to sell all media rights including television, broadband, internet, radio and mobile clips both domestically and internationally,” a PCB media release said.

“These rights are being perceived as a very strong property in the cricket circles around the globe since it offers approximately 200 days of live coverage of highly competitive and exciting cricket. In addition to starting and ending with the Icon series of India vs. Pakistan, the tenure covers tours of Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand and other Test playing nations to Pakistan.
 
This awarding of rights process, which started two months back, is expected to be completed by September.

“This roadmap along with timelines was approved by the Governing Board and an update on all steps is given to them at the Board meetings by our Director Marketing Ahsan Hameed Malik, who is working on this assignment,” PCB Chief Executive Shafqat Naghmi said.

In order to ensure transparency of the whole process, the PCB said it will be appointing a “Forensic Accountant Firm of international repute and stature” shortly to give their independent report at the completion of this course.

“The PCB is expected to share the first draft of the tender document with the potential bidders later this month,” the release added.

“After getting input from the broadcasters at a specially arranged roadshow in June/July 2008, the final document of Invitation to Tender (ITT) will be floated in last week of July 2008. Thereafter, the timelines set-forth in the ITT will be followed. The process is likely to be completed in September 2008.”