West Indies fans may yet get to see and hear live cricket coverage of their team's campaign in Sri Lanka starting later this week. In the continuing saga which involves the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), the Sri Lankan Cricket Board, WSG Nimbus, and Taj Sports Television, there has been yet another twist.

CMC, the regional organisation negotiating on behalf of radio and television stations in the Caribbean, has been caught up in a legal battle that has been brewing ever since the Sri Lankan Cricket Board terminated WSG Nimbus' exclusive rights to cover the upcoming Test series between Sri Lanka and the West Indies. The BCCSL then granted the Dubai-based Taj Sports Television Limited four-year exclusive rights to cover Sri Lankan cricket. Last week WSG's Group Lawyer reminded CMC that their client still held legal rights to the upcoming Test series, and warned against entering into a contract with any television or production company.

Yesterday, CMC reported that they had received a verbal undertaking from Taj Sports that they will provide indemnity against legal action. This latest development has seemingly cleared the way for West Indies fans in the Caribbean to see and hear live coverage during the current tour. But the latter will not happen until the second Test because it is now too late to get a commentary team from the Caribbean in place.

The other stumbling block to both radio and television coverage is the required sum of US $150,000 and US $300,000 respectively that it would take to facilitate this happening. So far, CMC has received US $55,000 towards radio coverage, and $100,000 towards television coverage. CMC's Chief Operations Officer Gary Allen said: "We want to provide coverage but we are not prepared to do it if it is not financially feasible. If the corporate community come forward to CMC to provide a portion of the shortfall, the stations would be relieved of some of the burden."

Two days ago, CMC announced that they were scrapping plans to provide both radio and television coverage of the West Indies versus Sri Lanka Test Series, because of looming legal action and the lack of financial commitment by the regional stations.

"Only one station in Trinidad and Tobago has committed and this means a loss of 12 per cent while Barbados has not changed its position with CBC saying they will go ahead with a pay-per-view package," Allen said. However, he noted that CMC was still negotiating with stations across the Caribbean to get them on board to achieve live coverage.

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