Crass discrimination

	The IPL's outrageous regulations are a brazen assault on the concept of freedom of the press by a sports body apparently drunk on its sense of power

Our worst fears have come to pass. Cricinfo, and all other cricket websites, who serve millions of cricket fans, have been subjected to a crassly discriminatory set of regulations by the Indian Premier League that seek to severely undermine our ability to cover the event. Cricinfo's journalists have been barred from entering the press box, and it has been made clear that agencies will not be able to sell us match pictures.

It is not merely a denial of our basic rights as a media organisation and with nearly ten million readers, we can lay claim to be the world's largest cricket media organisation. It is a denial of the rights of every cricket fan, each one of you who follows cricket on Cricinfo. It is also a brazen assault on the concept of freedom of the press by a sports body apparently drunk on its sense of power.

The IPL's attitude towards the media has been insolent from the outset. They began with the premise that they owned every photograph taken by press photographers and agencies at their matches, and by demanding that news organisations hand such photographs over to the IPL for perpetual use, free of cost. They also decreed how photographs ought to be used, how many could be used, and who could use them.

Inevitably, their bluff was called. Faced with a media boycott, the IPL was forced into withdrawing, one by one, its obnoxious clauses. Lalit Modi, to whom must go the credit of conceiving the IPL, and with it these outrageous regulations, had apparently not reckoned with the clout of newspapers. But websites remain a soft target. There are only a few of us dedicated to cricket, and we don't feature on the political map.

The reason advanced to keep us out couldn't be more spurious - and potentially more dangerous. It has been argued that "standalone cricket portals" will not be entertained at the ground and be allowed to use agency pictures because the IPL has sold its web rights. What next? Newspaper rights? News agency rights? Photo rights? Surely, freedom of the press can't be a partial and expedient device. Speciously, websites run by newspapers, and general-interest websites have been exempted. Only we, the ones who spend all their energy and resources in covering cricket, have been isolated and targeted.