Agencies 

NEW DELHI, Apr 6: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday
became a billion dollar property after it sold the global media rights to Zee Telefilms for matches to be played at neutral venues in the next five years.

Zee clinched the rights -- for the period from April 1, 2006, to March 31, 2011 -- with an overall bid of USD 219.15 million (approx Rs 985 crore).

The deal will cover a series of one-day internationals to be played by India overseas, outside of the bilateral tours under the ICC Futures Test Programme, which comes to a minimum of 25 matches.

"With this deal, the revenues of the BCCI for the next five years will go beyond a billion dollars," Lalit Modi, Board Vice President and Marketing Sub-Committee Chairman,
said while announcing the rights winner.

The first of the series would be the two one-dayers against Pakistan to be played in Abu Dhabi on April 18 and 19.   The global media rights cover telecast, broadband and
radio rights.  "Australia, West Indies and England are the other countries that have agreed to play India," Modi said.

"Dubai, Holland, United Kingdom, the USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are the other venues."

ESPN-Star Sports was disqualified as it bid below the minimum bidding amount while Nimbus (USD 200.07 million) and Sahara (176.20), a late entrant, lost out to Zee.

Zee would be the sole authority in fixing the terms for the terrestrial rights by Doordarshan. BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah and Salim Altaf, Pakistan
Cricket Board Director-Operations, signed the agreement for the Abu Dhabi series.

The BCCI and the PCB will share equally the profits from the series while the hosts, Abu Dhabi Cricket Council, would be paid a "certain" amount, Modi said.

 The income from the first match estimated at approximately USD 5.04 million, which is the figure, quoted by Zee for each match -- will go to the victims of the Kashmir
earthquake last year.

Zee Telefilms said it was willing to share the feed with public broadcaster Prasar Bharti.
    
"Oh yes, we will definitely do that (sharing feed)," Zee Sports' Himanshu Modi said minutes after BCCI awarded it the overseas telecast rights.