MUMBAI: Roger Martin, the Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto in Canada, feels capitalism has a lesson or two to learn from sports in order to correct the discrepancies in the ideology.

According to Martin, there are two kinds of games being played in capitalist system, the real game and the expectations games. The real game is one where organisations create real value by making real investments to create real products; on the other hand, the expectations game is one which investors buy shares in a company on the basis of expectations of likely performance of that company.

Drawing a parallel between Cricket and democratic capitalism, Martin said, "Capitalism can learn a lesson from all modern sports - whether American football or Indian cricket for that matter. Each major spectator sport actually involves a real game and an expectations game. In the real game of cricket, batsmen, bowlers and fielders take a real pitch and play real wickets, make real outs and score real runs. Eventually there is a real winner and real loser."

In an interview to DNA, Martin also said that there is an associated expectations game: betting on cricket matches. "In this game, imagine what will happen when the teams take the field and on the basis of those expectations place their bets. On the basis of those bets, bookmakers adjust the odds against the favourites and for the underdogs to balance the amount of money bet on either side."

Martin believes that "betting odds in a cricket match are identical to the stock price in capitalism" as both are products of the expectations market.

"The world of sports is clear about the relationship between the expectations market and the real market: they must be kept separate. If they are not kept separate - that is, if players in the real game are allowed to participate in the expectations game - they will wreck the real game. Cricket fans know this from the 2010-11 betting scandals in cricket in Pakistan. There key players were accused and tried for influencing the results of real games to aid bettors in making illegal profits in the expectations game."

That‘s where the similarities between sports and capitalism end as the latter encourages its stakeholders to play in the expectations market.

"In great contrast to the world of sports, capitalism not only allows, but also insists on the key players in the real market playing in the expectations market. CEOs and other key executives are forced to take a significant portion of their compensation by way of stock-based compensation. In doing so, capitalism threatens the health of the real game. On this front, capitalism is not as smartly managed as cricket," he avers.

MUMBAI: Cricket Australia has renewed its media rights agreement with UK sportscaster Sky Sports by extending the association for a further four years.

The Sky Sports deal includes all broadcast, mobile and internet rights. Excluded from the Sky Sports agreement are audio-only rights in the UK and CA will commence separate negotiations for this rights package in due course.

The new agreement includes all rights for international and Australian domestic cricket, including the coveted Ashes in 2013-14 and every game of the KFC T20 Big Bash League.

Spanning the 2012-13 to 2015-16 seasons, Sky Sports will provide viewers in the UK as well as some European countries with exclusive live coverage of Australia?s international home series featuring: South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies (2012-13), England (2013-14), South Africa, India, England (2014-15), and New Zealand, West Indies, India (2015-16).

In addition, Sky Sports has rights to broadcast matches from Australia?s domestic competitions including the KFC T20 Big Bash League, Ryobi Cup and women?s tournaments.

Cricket Australia Chief Executive Officer James Sutherland welcomed the extension of the long term partnership: "Sky Sports has been a long term and valued partner of Australian cricket for more than 20 years and we are thrilled to extend our association with them," he said.

"Sky Sports depth and breadth of cricket coverage in the UK is unparalleled across multiple platforms. We want fans to have the best possible coverage of Australian cricket content, wherever they live, and we are confident that Sky will deliver with its expertise and knowledge of the game."

Sky Sports MD Barney Francis said, "The Ashes is one of world sport?s greatest events. Sky Sports has never offered greater depth and breadth of coverage and this renewal gives us the strongest line up of live sport for our viewers to watch at home or on the move."

Sutherland said while the commercial details of the agreement would not be disclosed, the value of this new and significant deal reflected the strength of cricket and reinforced the value of one of sport?s most iconic contests, the Ashes.

"England tours Australia twice in the next four year period, including an Ashes series in 2013-14, and no doubt these are jewels in the crown for our renewal with Sky Sports," he said.

CA had last year extended broadcast rights partnership with ESPN Star Sports till 2016.

"Over the past two years CA has renewed agreements in every major cricket territory in the world including New Zealand, Asia, South Africa, the United States and how the United Kingdom and these partnerships have and will put Australian cricket in a strong position both financially and in terms of excellent cricket coverage for fans.

"We have one major media rights agreement to complete the backbone of our broadcast portfolio, and that is in the Australian market. We want to deliver the best results for cricket fans and our members, that?s our objective."

MUMBAI: IMG Media, a division of IMG Worldwide, has secured long-term media rights deals with BSkyB, the UK?s leading sports broadcaster for both Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa.

The separate deals with the cricket boards will see England?s tour matches in Australia and South Africa shown on Sky Sports until 2016 and 2020 respectively.

IMG Asia Pacific SVP and Head of IMG Media said, "We are delighted to have concluded these deals. Sky Sports is the leading broadcaster of cricket in the UK and Ireland and they were intent on strengthening their year round coverage of the game, especially with England?s forthcoming Ashes Tour in Australia next year and tours to South Africa, the current top Test team in the world, in 2015 and 2019."

Sky Sports MD Barney Francis said, "The Ashes is one of world sport?s greatest events and we can now guarantee the next three series, home and away. Test cricket has always been core to Sky Sports and as England look to take the Test crown back from South Africa our viewers can see their next two series over there. This series of rights renewals gives us the strongest line up of live sport for our viewers to watch at home or on the move."

In addition to the Ashes series in Australia, the four-year deal for Sky Sports includes Australia?s home series with South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, India and New Zealand, plus Australia?s domestic Twenty20 Big Bash League.

Apart from England?s two tours of South Africa, Sky Sports deal includes the Test series against New Zealand, Pakistan, India, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, plus domestic Twenty20 matches.

MUMBAI: Geoff Allardice has been appointed to the position of ICC General Manager- Cricket to succeed David Richardson, who has been promoted to ICC chief executive.

For the past decade, Geoff has worked with Cricket Australia, most recently as the ?General Manager, Cricket Operations?. Geoff played first class cricket for Victoria.

David Richardson said: "Geoff has a wealth of knowledge and experience gained during his time with Cricket Australia. I am looking forward to working with him and deploying his undoubted talent at the ICC. He is a great addition to our Team."