ICC bans Indian electronic media from World Cup final

Mumbai, Apr 1 (PTI) The International Cricket Council
Friday barred Indian television news channels from covering
the World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka here
Saturday, accusing them of breaching the accreditation
guidelines.
Representatives of the channels, who had come to
attend the pre-match press conferences of the rival captions
and ICC President Sharad Pawar were asked to stay out of the
Wankhede stadium complex.
Despite marathon negotiations to resolve the matter
last night, the News Broadcasters' Association (NBA) and the
ICC could not reach an agreement on terms of coverage.
The TV channels, who had faced a similar ban ahead of
the semifinal between India and Pakistan in Mohali before the
Information and Broadcasting Ministry stepped in to help their
cause, were today barred from the pre-match media conference
of both Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Kumar Sangakkara.
During the Mohali match, the ICC officials had allowed
only those channels who were not in the banned list to enter
the stadium while others had to report from outside the venue.
As a result, there were hordes of reporters from the
print media but only a handful of television cameras at the
press conference.
The Broadcast Editors' Association (BEA) and the
National Broadcasters Association (NBA) had then approached
the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry on the matter.
ICC has accused channels of a number of broadcast
violations during the entire tournament and the game's
governing body has repeatedly brought it to the notice of the
offenders. Despite the warning, they continued to breach the
guidelines, prompting the ICC to take stern action.