Sri Lankan newspaper runs black figure in place of cricket action shot

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A Sri Lankan newspaper chose a graphic way to illustrate how a media rights dispute between Cricket Australia and the major international news agencies is hurting its coverage of the series. With its national squad in Brisbane, Australia, for the first test match against the world's top-ranked team, Sri Lanka's Sunday Times would usually rely on The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse to supply images. But with the agencies locked out of the match over a dispute involving the terms and conditions of accreditation, the paper carried only a three-column report supplied by the British Broadcasting Corp. Next to the report, in a space where a match photo would usually go, was a black figure in the shape of a batsman playing a stroke.