Cricket Australia and the NRL are set to go to war over Channel Nine's Friday night prime-time slot for March 2.
Channel Nine is yet to decide whether to air the round one NRL match between the Eels and Broncos at Parramatta Stadium or the one-day cricket international between Australia and Sri Lanka at the MCG on its main digital channel.
Both Cricket Australia and the NRL expect their matches to be shown live on Nine's main channel, leaving the network with a huge decision to make as it prepares to upset one of its major ratings winners.
Nine's director of sport Steve Crawley said the network was undecided which sport would be relegated to its secondary channel, GEM.
''There's a few things we're trying to work out,'' Crawley said. ''We're in no real rush.''
The scheduling clash will rob thousands of viewers of their sport of choice, with many analog televisions - unable of picking up the GEM broadcast - still in operation.
NRL football operations director Nathan McGuirk was confident the football would be shown live on Nine's main channel.
''We understand they [Channel Nine] still have some scheduling issues which they still have to finalise,'' McGuirk said. ''But we're confident it won't be affecting the live broadcast of our match.''
But Cricket Australia was also certain it wouldn't cop the raw end of the deal. ''There is a particular and unique chemistry between Channel Nine and Cricket Australia that goes back the best part of 30 years,'' spokesman Peter Young said. ''I'm imagining it [the contract] would oblige them to provide us with a national telecast.''
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