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The organizers of the Asian Test Championship final received a rude shock when all the major sports television channels refused to buy broadcasting rights, officials said Monday.

The final starts here Wednesday between defending champions Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The competition is being held under the auspices of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC). The officials said the reason for lacklustre response was the absence of India from the competition and the delayed decision to hold the title match.

We approached all the major television channels to buy the rights but none responded. Their first reaction was that India is not playing which has somewhat devalued the competition.

Secondly, the decision was taken too late to allow us to market the final and convince the sports channels. They (sports channels) finalized their schedule three months in advance and unless something big comes up, they don't alter their programme," a representative of TransWorld International (TWI) said.

TWI is the official broadcaster of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) but would not be relaying signals of the match. Pakistan Television will televise the final live.

The official said the only response came from Sri Lanka who offered $2,000 for the final. "Their condition was that if there was a power failure in Sri Lanka, amount would be deducted from $2,000 for the time the pictures were not shown. "I think in the end, TWI would have ended up paying $10,000 to them," he said.

© Dawn