After PWC exit, broadcast industry calls ICC media rights tender a 'joke', insists on e-auction

PriceWaterHouseCoopers (PWC) stepped down as auditors for the ongoing media rights sale of the International Cricket Council (ICC), prospective bidders wrote to the game's governing body, asking the latter to explain the accounting firm's exit, and have also pressed for the rights to now be sold by way of an e-auction. The broadcasters have raised serious concerns over the overall mechanism once again and urged the ICC to opt for e-auction as the "only process" to sell the rights. BCCI secretary Jay Shah too has time and again asked the ICC to adopt e-auction as the process to sell rights. In fact, Shah - who successfully oversaw the sale of Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights in June this year - has specifically said that for sports federations that dispose of the functions of a public body, profits should be as important as transparency. "Which is the reason the BCCI made sure that the IPL rights would be sold in a manner that no questions would be raised about the process. Ask a broadcaster and they'll tell you how the IPL was sold at optimum value. But even if it wasn't sold at optimum value, there's no way you're going to debate the processes that were in place," say those tracking the 'rights' industry.

Read AlsoICC media rights: Audit firm PWC opts out of bid process; Cricket body says they were on board for 'due diligence'

Global accounting and auditing firm PriceWaterHouseCoopers UK (PWC), advising the International Cricket Council (ICC) on the sale of media rights for the next cycle beginning with the India market, are learnt to have quit the process.

What has the ICC opted for instead? A convoluted process, lacking transparency, where they asked broadcasters to first submit a closed bid and then, if not