Nimbus retain rights for cricket in India - reports

The rights to India's home international games for four years from April 2010 have been provisionally awarded to Nimbus Communications for Rs. 2000 crore (US$431 million), according to media reports. The condition attached, the reports say, is that Nimbus must furnish a guarantee by January.

Till late on Tuesday evening the Indian board had not issued an official statement on the decision.

Nimbus, one of India's leading television marketing companies, holds the rights at present, for which it paid $612 million - subsequently renegotiated to $549 million - in February 2006 for a deal that ends next March.

Reports say the new deal, finalised by the BCCI's marketing committee, will see Nimbus paying Rs.31.5 crores (US$6.8 million) for each international match, including Tests, Twenty20 internationals and ODIs. However, it is not clear how many matches India will be playing in that period, given that the current Future Tours Programme ends in 2012 and the next one has not yet been made public.

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