Zee serves notice on BCCI

Zee Telefilms served a notice on the Board of Control for Cricket in India and former BCCI President Jagmohan Dalmiya claiming Rs 1630 crore for the "losses caused to us" due to the cancellation of the telecast rights.

"We have engaged a leading international accounting firm to prepare a detailed report calculating the damages caused to us. Our preliminary estimate of such damages is Rs 1,630 crore," Zee said in the notice on Saturday.

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"It has been found by the High Court that Zee has been wronged and not only deprived of its legitimate business opportunity, serious losses have been caused to us," Zee added in the letter written by Himanshu Modi, executive vice-president of Zee

"We therefore give notice of our intent to claim damages from BCCI and Dalmiya jointly and severally for the losses already caused to us."

The row over telecast rights of cricket matches organised by the BCCI began when it cancelled the award to Zee Telefilms last September after it was contested by ESPN-Star Sports in the Bombay High Court.

Thereafter, Zee Telefilms took the matter to the Madras High Court, which in its judgement last month ruled that the Board's move to cancel the award of rights was "improper".

In its letter, Zee has also said that it wants to settle the matter amicably but many attempts in the past to approach Ranbir Singh Mahendra, president of BCCI, "to come together and resolve this issue has been fruitless."

Ashish Kaul, vice-president, corporate brand development for Zee, said: "We are offering to BCCI even now to find an amicable solution to the crisis. We had made similar offers earlier, but the board has rejected them all."