The Bangladesh Cricket Board, the sport’s governing body in the country, has sold its worldwide media rights for the country’s national team series against West Indies to satellite-television broadcaster Virgo Media, which operates Bangladeshi pay-television channel Channel 9.
Mustafa Kamal, the outgoing president of the governing body, said that Channel 9 would also be responsible for the television production of the series.
“The board will be paid $50,000 (€39,000) for the sale of the rights. We received a few other offers but this seemed like the most profitable deal,” Kamal said, as reported by the ESPNCricinfo website.
The Bangladesh v West Indies series, comprising two Test matches, five One-Day Internationals and a Twenty20 international, will start next month.
The board struck the deal with Virgo after being unsatisfied with the response to a tender for its global rights, covering three-and-a-half years, from November 1, 2012 to April 30, 2016.
The report added that a short-term deal had been agreed after Virgo refused to increase its fee for the long-term deal from $6 million. The board had been asking for $15 million for the 2012 to 2016 period.
The board, which has not had a worldwide broadcast partner since its deal with the Nimbus Communications agency concluded in March, plans to launch a new tender without the Bangladesh v West Indies series. The board will revise the terms of the original tender, which included the requirement of a $2.5 million bank guarantee from the winning bidder.