The International Olympic Committee has criticizedIndian cricket authorities, accusing them of attacking press freedom by preventingphotographers from covering games between India and England.
IOC Press Commission Chairman Kevan Gosper called oncricket's governing body, the International Cricket Council, to intervene toallow news organizations free access to the cricket games between two of theworld's top teams.
International news organizations, including The AssociatedPress, suspended text and photo coverage of England's cricket tour of India onWednesday because of new restrictions introduced by the Board of Control forCricket in India.
"The IOC strongly disagrees with these moves by theBCCI," Gosper said in a statement, "which we believe are a directattack on the freedom of the media to report from sporting events, and showscontempt for the sporting public around the world who would otherwise like tofollow these important matches."
The BCCI has barred photo-only agencies from covering gamesand made a small number of its own photographs available to media.
Other international news organizations have also suspendedcoverage. The British press has refused to publish photographs of the matchbetween India and England that began on Thursday in Ahmedabad.
"Photographers are news gatherers, and must be grantedappropriate access to do their job," said Gosper, an Australian who hasbeen prominent in battling for press freedom in sport. "We would hope thatthe ICC intervene and that sports administrators refrain from interfering withand placing restrictions on the vitally important role of media to freelyreport from sporting events."
The Dubai-based ICC is the global authority administeringcricket. The BCCI, with a domestic market of more than one billion people, hasbecome increasingly powerful in the International Cricket Council.
The AP is working with the News Media Coalition, aconsortium of international media, to try to resolve the issue.
Cricket authorities are hoping to convince the IOC toinclude Twenty20 cricket, the shortest form of the game, as an Olympic sport.