Ehsan Mani, one-time president of the International Cricket Council (ICC), has been retained by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) as part of its team to consider bids for audio-visual rights to West Indies cricket outside of Britain for the period 2008 – 2010.
A source close to the matter revealed here yesterday that when submissions are presented in Dubai next week, Mani would act as adviser to WICB’s team of chief executive Donald Peters and Jamaican lawyer Derek Jones, who was senior legal counsel to the ICC World Cup in the Caribbean. Century Television, Octagon, Ten Television and Trans World International are production companies known to have put in offers for rights that will be for all forms of digital broadcast of regional and international games within the Caribbean.
The British television company, BSkyB, have held the global rights for the past four years at a reported cost of US$20 million.
The WICB announced last month that it would also appoint a new production partner for the period with the understanding that it increases “the local expertise necessary for international standard cricket production in the Caribbean”.
Mani, a 62-year-old Pakistan-born, London-based chartered accountant, negotiated the sale of ICC media rights during his time as head of the organization’s finance and marketing committee.
He was a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) representative from 1989, serving on several committees before assuming the presidency between 2004-06.
