How Jagmohan Dalmiya Commercialized Cricket (Part 3)

SM: Let’s go back to the finance issues. There was tremendous revenue potential in telecast rights.

JD: There were, but we had to fight the Broadcasting Ministry for those rights. Our stance was simple. We believed the ministry was taking all of our money away from us by denying us the opportunity to own our telecast rights. They stated they owned those rights based on some telegraph act passed in 1889. Nobody else had ever heard of it. We felt those rights were ours and that none of the justifications provided by the ministry were valid.

SM: Telegraphs had disappeared!

JD: Yes they had, so I obviously challenged the ministry. I went to various courts and ultimately our case went to the Supreme Court. When the Supreme Court got involved, some very interesting things happened. The court posed some questions to the Secretary of Communication and asked him to hold some discussions with us that day. The Secretary of Communication told the court he would “look into it”. He did nothing. His office delayed negotiating with us until 6:00 PM. We started having some discussions, finally, but at 6:30PM they said they had to go. Our lawyer had had enough of their games and went straight to the three senior most judges to inform them of the lack of progress. He requested a hearing at 10:00 the following morning.

The justices became furious and said, “Yes, court will be held at 10:00 but not tomorrow morning; the hearing will be tonight!” A temporary courtroom was built at Justice Verma’s residence and we began at 10:00 PM sharp. At 1:00 AM the judgment came. The court said they wanted to see the telecasts the following morning and added that people responsible for the telecast not taking place would be held in contempt of court. The minister was running after us saying, “Please, take the necessary equipment and start the telecasts!” The game was finally televised from Ahmedabad. That was the historical, monumental decision by which Indian cricket has been changed. If we would not have won that decision, Indian cricket would still be languishing.

SM: You had to disconnect Indian cricket from the ministry.

JD: Yes. The Supreme Court order prevented future interference. The only involvement the ministry could have from that point on was to buy telecast rights just like anyone else. That was the starting point for real Indian cricket. We have never looked back since.

SM: What kind of numbers were you seeing  when you started selling your rights? Before, you had to pay them 5 lakhs (approximately $10,000) to transmit.

JD: In the beginning we sold telecast rights for $250,000. Now we sell them for $200 million. Obviously the financial benefits are tremendous, and that is what gave Indian cricket the basis for everything else.

This segment is part 3 in the series : How Jagmohan Dalmiya Commercialized Cricket
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