Cable TV blackout marrs Pakistan cricket tour (20 January 1999)

20 January 1999

Cable TV blackout marrs Pakistan cricket tour

AFP

BOMBAY, Jan 20 (AFP) - Cricket fans in Bombay are facing the agony of a cable television blackout of the upcoming Test series with Pakistan, as part of a campaign by militant Hindus to disrupt the tour.

The Maharashtra Cable Sena (MCS) - a cable network affiliated with the Hindu-militant Shiv Sena party - announced Wednesday that it would boycott the entire Pakistan tour.

"We will switch off the television signals and black out the matches," said MCS president Ramkrishna Keni.

The Shiv Sena rules the western state of Maharashtra, of which Bombay is the capital.

The Pakistan team was scheduled to fly into New Delhi on Thursday for their first Test tour of India in 12 years.

The MCS network boasts 1,170 cable television operators, out of a state-wide total of more than 5,000.

"This is our contribution to the party programme. We are doing a patriotic act by blacking out the matches," Keni said.

The Shiv Sena party has pledged to disrupt the tour because of Pakistan's support for Moslem separatists in Kashmir.

"We have requested the other operators to join us. We are confident they will do so," Keni said.

"Barring the Moslem-majority pockets of the state, 98 percent of the state's cable television operators will join us. After all, they take power supply and water from the state.

"Those who telecast the matches and watch them will be pro-Pakistan and anti-national."

Keni said cable television operators in other parts of India, affiliated to his party, would also black out the matches.

"Our decision will have repercussions all over India," he said, adding that he was not worried about a possible backlash from Bombay cricket fans.

"You do not lose anything by not watching one cricket match. You can do at least this much in the interest of the nation."

Source :: AFP