"We have entered into a strategic alliance. While we have the expertise in the South Asia, TWI has skills in the other markets. We will be bidding together for the matches which Doordarshan has acquired from the Board of Control for Cricket in India," Stracon India chairman and managing director Siddhartha Ray told The Financial Express.

The territory rights will include domestic and overseas air time sales. Besides, the two companies will extend their alliance to do broadcast production of the cricket matches for Doordarshan.

TWI and Stracon have agreed to share the revenue and expenses equally. The two partners will be investing in the purchase of new production equipment. "We will be replacing some of our old equipment. If we get a longer contract fromDD, we will shift completely to digital equipment," Ray said.

While Nimbus Communication had obtained the domestic air sales rights from Doordarshan for the India-New Zealand series, TWI and Stracon had acquired the overseas marketing rights. Sources said Nimbus paid DD Rs 12 crore for the rights which was higher than Stracon and TWI's joint bid of Rs 10.71 crore. Doordarshan, however, looked at a combined bid when it came to production and overseas rights. Stracon and TWI's bid was $800,000 for overseas rights while they agreed to accept $990,000 from DD for production. Nimbus's bid was at $590 for non-Indian territories and $990,000 for production. In overseas and production rights, Nimbus had bid along with Asia Sports and Sunset Production in UK.

Stracon and TWI sold the India-New Zealand series to around 20 broadcasters including Rupert Murdoch's Sky in UK and New Zealand, Fox in Middle East and Channel 9 in Australia.

As Stracon and TWI had to sell the rights to broadcasters outside the country,they had to raise the production standards, Ray said. While DD had made specification for 10 cameras, the test series was shot on 13 cameras. For the one-dayers, 16 cameras are being used while Doordarshan's tender specification was 13 cameras.With DD deciding to go for a tendering system on the one-off India-New Zealand series, the marketing agents will have to bid again when a new series starts.

Meanwhile, DD has selected two former test cricketers Kris Srikant and Manoj Prabhakar in their commentary team for the one-dayers. They will be anchoring a pre-match review, first innings review and the match review. "Though the production has been tendered to TWI and Stracon, we are investing on the two commentators who will form a part of our in-house studio team," a senior DD official said.