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India have dented the Asian Cricket Council's plans of striking it rich through selling of television rights for the Asian Test Championship starting this month.

The Indians have been given an August 23 deadline to decide if at all they will cross borders to play Pakistan in a match of the championship at Lahore in September. Although Zakir Hussain Syed, the secretary of the ACC, was still hopeful India would come over, the indecisiveness of that country's government means the council would not now be able to make the kind of money they had in mind.

"We have lost valuable time because of India's indecision and now we have asked the cricket boards of the countries involved in the first two Tests to arrange for their own signals," Zakir told Dawn. He said that at the same time the ACC was still confident of finding an international sponsor. "The Asian Test Championship is a mega event and there are companies still interested."

Five leading television companies -ESPN/ESS, Sony, Zee, TWI and WSG are in the run to earn the rights for the championship. ACC's previous deal with TWI had expired in June. Apart from the Asian Test Championship, the ACC plans to award the television rights to a company which will eventually be responsible for airing all of their tournaments. These would include the Asia Cup, ACC Trophy, under-19 and under-17 competitions. The deal would be for a period of five years from 2002 to 2007.

"The deal is likely to generate big money because television marketing has a huge potential in the sub-continent," Zakir said. "Once finalised, it will be a big boost for the ACC."

© Dawn