BCCI asks IPL stars, team owners and commentators not to post pictures from stadiums

The BCCI has issued a notification prohibiting commentators, players, IPL owners, and social media and content teams linked with IPL squads from releasing any images or videos from the stadium on match days on social media.

Last week, a former India batsman was photographed commentating during an IPL game and shared it on social media. Soon after, he was instructed to delete it by a BCCI employee whose duty it is to ensure commentators do not share photos from any part of the stadium on match days. However, despite having nearly one million followers, the pundit refused to erase the photograph. He only agreed after several requests. This is just one of several recent occasions in which commentators irritated broadcast rights holders by publishing photographs or videos on social media during an IPL game and violating rules.

According to the report, the BCCI has now taken strong action and prohibited all of them in a notification, warning that there will be penalties for disobeying the regulations.

“The broadcasters have paid big money for IPL rights. So commentators cannot post videos or photographs on match day on social media. There have been instances where commentators have done an ‘Instagram Live’ or posted a photo from the ground. One video got one million views. Even IPL teams can’t post videos of live games. They can post a limited number of photographs and can give live match updates on their social media platforms. If found guilty, a franchise will be fined,” BCCI official was quoted as saying by Indian Express.

Apart from this, the BCCI officials noted some players, who posted pictures on match days, were instructed to remove them. “Even players have been told to be mindful of social media posts on match days. All posts by players are being monitored. They had been informed of the rules but we found that some of them have not followed it,” the official added.

They stated that Viacom 18 for digital and Star India for television have exclusive rights to content related to ‘live matches’ and the ‘field of play’.

According to the article, the board has assigned designated staff members to rigorously monitor IPL output and posts made by commentators, IPL teams, players, and others present at the ground in an official capacity.

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