MUMBAI: Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Mohammad Ali Asghar has resigned to clear the way for the government to sign a record television deal with Singapore-headquartered Nimbus Sport.

As already reported on Indiantelevision.com, the deal, which runs from 1 November 2006 to 31 March 2012 and includes 16 international cricket events, was awarded to Nimbus after it made a whopping $ 56.88 million bid. Nimbus Sport will exclusively market media rights encompassing television, radio, broadband internet and mobile telephony. Nimbus will also produce the television world feed for all the events in the term.

The official announcement that the Bangladesh board and Nimbus had entered into a partnership for marketing of BCB media rights came a day after Asghar's resignation.

Replacing Asghar, a lawmaker of the country's outgoing ruling party, is senior government official Mohammad Abdul Aziz.

"I have resigned as the ministry was delaying signing a deal with Nimbus that won a tender for a cricket marketing deal," Asghar had been quoted by news service Reuters as saying.

Nimbus will exclusively market media rights encompassing television, radio, broadband internet and mobile telephony. Nimbus Sport will also produce the television world feed for all the events in the term.

Nimbus' telecast of Bangladesh cricket begins later this month with a five-match one-day series against Zimbabwe. After that, Bangladesh plays Bermuda and Canada in early 2007 (two ODIs each).

The full roster of international cricket events the rights encompass include three India tours, and tours by all major test-playing nations including England, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, West Indies and New Zealand. It also includes a number of domestic cricket events, an offical release states.