The chances of the highly sought-after cricket broadcast rights having a pay TV element appears to have been given a boost, with Cricket Australia (CA) rejecting a joint bid by Nine and Ten.

In a statement to media, CA confirmed it rejected the joint bid, and said “discussions are ongoing with other parties”.

It now seems that the likely outcome of the cricket rights negotiations will be a three-party deal involving Nine, Ten and Fox Sports.

CA’s decision to reject the joint bid by Nine and Ten came just before the ball tampering scandal involving Aussie cricketers over the weekend in South Africa, which has seen a number of Test players, including captain Steve Smith and batsman Cameron Bancroft (pictured above), punished.

Unsurprisingly, sponsors of the Aussie Test Team are not at all impressed with the cheating scandal, with Magellan, Qantas, Commonwealth Bank and Skins all asking for a ‘please explain’ from Cricket Australia.

Broadcaster Nine declined to comment when contacted by B&T.