Indo-Pak series faces blackout as BCCI-Agencies stand-off continues

MUMBAI: After the India-England series, the Pakistan?s cricket tour of India has become a casualty of the ongoing dispute between international media and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

News organisations around the world are angry that the BCCI has locked out major suppliers of photographic news material like Getty Images, Action Images and two Indian photo agencies.

International news agencies, which decided not to report on the England test series or provide any photographic coverage, are not covering the Indo-Pak series as well.

The BCCI?s decision to exclude photo news agencies from covering the games has provoked a widespread reaction from editors, publishers and other news organisations.

The India cricket board has however stood by its decision by contending that the primary businesses of photo syndication agencies involved the commercial sale and licensing of images rather than for editorial purposes which is against its guidelines.

"It is regrettable that the politically-charged Pakistan tour will be affected by the BCCI?s failure to recognise the long-standing importance of photographic news agencies in the flow of sport and news images every day," said the News Media Coalition, which campaigns for independent journalistic coverage at major sporting event.

Outside of India, virtually no photographs of the England Test series were published as the games unfolded from what has been labeled ?The Hidden Tour?, according to NMC.

"As a direct result of the BCCI stance, great sporting moments from the cricket tours to India are going unrecorded and therefore lost forever. England?s first four games were the hidden series and the Pakistan tour is heading for the same fate. That?s not good for cricket, nor for the image of India abroad,? said NMC Executive Director Andrew Moger.

The decision to refuse accreditation led to decisions by Thomson Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press to suspend reports of the tours as well as pictures. The Press Association, national agency in the United Kingdom, also did not supply photographs from the England Tests.

One of its member organisations, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN-IFRA), said in a statement: "All publishers, including those in India are concerned that the BCCI has decided to act against the photographic agency sector which has for years provided images for editorial customers in every country without problem. This is denying the ability of editors to select from the best of photography for the benefit of readers."

The photo agencies argue that they have been granted access to provide editorial coverage from numerous other sporting events such as cricket grounds, including those in Australia whose national team tour India in February next year.

While the BCCI has offered its own photographic account of the England games, none of the top online news websites outside of India has carried their images throughout the tour, the NWC stated.

Newspapers and big news websites such as the BBC have decided instead to resort to archive images to illustrate the key performances of players such as Alistair Cook for England and Sachin Tendulkar for India.