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The nails in the coffin have been far too many, and yet, one cannot help but predict the moment when the BCCI will come back from the dead at this year’s ipl and deliver the ‘we-told-you-so’ line. Even if that happens and the dates for this season’s IPL are announced in the next couple of days, the bigger question-mark would be who, would then telecast the tournament. In a rather startling development, BCCI has called off its contract with the original broadcasters for the Indian audience, Sony Entertainment Television, for allegedly what has been defined as the breach of contract. The usual jamboree has followed. A court case has been filed and the words injunction, prosecution, stay order, sue and defamation are all in the process of being scattered by one or the other side in the fray. The jury is still out on this one – literally and otherwise – and one cannot be sure of which way would the judge decide to go. Yet, what warms the cockles of my heart is one of the official reasons that the BCCI has put forward for nullifying the contract; bad quality telecast! Now while this issue may just be raked up to strengthen BCCI’s case, but the fact of the matter is that Sony’s telecast of both the previous year’s IPL and the on-going India-New Zealand series has been just a notch higher than appalling. Nothing more. And SET deserves nothing less than getting a spank or two up their backside to make them realise that inserting cricket match into a barrage of advertisements – and not the other way around – isn’t exactly the way most fans want to watch their favourite sport!The fall-out had been earlier triggered by the Sony-Big TV break-up which had ended up costing the cricket board a truck-load of money. Kunal Dasgupta’s resignation as the CEO of SET may have made for interesting news, but it had a general sense of another Satyam in the making; not exactly a fraud of direct proportions, but clearly, Mr. Dasgupta would have had enough insight about things within the channel. My sincere advice here is that Sony is only an entertainment channel, and while IPL is cricketing entertainment, it would make a lot of sense for them to pick up the crumbs and move on. The World Cup of 2007 – against telecast by SET – had been as disastrous as having a Steve Waugh comment adversely on it, and now, the only reason why the coverage seems a trifle improved is because there was no way down!As they have tried their level best to prove and exhibit, that cricket broadcasting isn’t exactly their kettle of fish, it is time to bring on a ‘Sports’ channel to commence doing the same. High time.