Mumbai, May 30: Walkouts by two broadcasters have compounded Indian cricket’s misery, leaving in jeopardy next week’s Afro-Asia Cup in Bangalore and Chennai as well as Team India’s June-July series in Ireland and Scotland.

Zee Telefilms struck the first blow last night, pulling out of its five-year contract with the Board of Control for Cricket in India to beam the country’s games at neutral venues like Sharjah, Ireland or Scotland.

Hours later, Nimbus Communications withdrew from its deal with the Asian Cricket Council to show the three one-dayers and one Twenty20 match between an Asia XI and an Africa XI, scheduled from June 6.

“We will not be part of the event in any way. We will not be telecasting… neither shall we be producing nor bringing sponsorship,” Nimbus chief Harish Thawani told an agency.

Thawani didn’t explain the move, hinting at “developments over the last few months”, but sources suggested the main reason was the pullout by Asian stars such as Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Muttiah Muralidharan and Shoaib Akhtar.

Zee, ironically, suggested that its decision was prompted by what it saw as the Indian board’s preferential treatment of rival Nimbus.

But a board veteran said: “The root of the friction is Zee’s announcement of the Indian Cricket League that challenges the board’s monopoly. This and advertiser disinterest towards cricket has made the BCCI edgy.”

Ever since India’s shock World Cup exit, the board has struggled with advertisements and sponsorships. Even national broadcaster Doordarshan chose not to beam the Tests series in Bangladesh, citing lack of viewer interest.

Many believe that Zee’s idea of a parallel league made an already embattled board more jittery. The simmering tensions erupted at last night’s meeting with tempers being lost, sources said.

“We have decided to scrap the deal,” Ashish Kaul, Zee Group senior vice-president, said today. He blamed “the attitude of the BCCI”.

A top company official said the board was refusing to renegotiate the $219-million contract with Zee, as it had done with Nimbus.

Nimbus, which owns the channel Neo Sports, bagged a four-year contract last year for the telecast of all international and domestic cricket controlled by the BCCI and played in India till March 31, 2010.

But after the government made it mandatory for broadcasters to share live cricket feed involving India with Doordarshan, the board renegotiated the $619-million deal with Nimbus.

“Nimbus is getting a hefty rebate…. We wrote to the board for renegotiation, but no such allowances were made for Zee,” the official said.

All sports channels in the country want encryption of the live feed because unencrypted Doordarshan signals are also received in Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Malaysia. The sports broadcasters fear that they together stand to lose more than Rs 1,000 crore.

Zee also said the board refused to discuss the calendar for the neutral-venue games. “Apart from the Ireland and Scotland matches, they have not intimated us the whole calendar,” Kaul said.

The Ireland series, featuring India, South Africa and Ireland, was to start on June 23, to be followed by the Scotland matches involving India, Pakistan and the home team. Cricket isn’t a popular sport in either host country, and games there will not make economic sense without TV coverage.

“If the series is cancelled because of the BCCI’s inability to fix a broadcaster, the Irish Cricket Union will lose a lot of money. It had planned the series to fund its growing cricket ambitions,” a BCCI member said.

“Zee can’t do this. They will have to pay a huge penalty for pulling out of the contract in this fashion. If they don’t (pay up), the issue will make it to the courts,” the board member said.

“We are talking to broadcasters and will soon announce a new contract so that the Ireland series stays on track.”