NEW DELHI, March 12: India's Supreme Court Chief Justice stepped in after court hours on Friday to clear the way for the broadcast of the first match of Pakistan-India cricket series to millions of Indian homes.

V.N. Khare called a hearing at his home regarding the case between Gulf-based TV network Ten Sports and Indian cable operators on the eve of Saturday's opening one-day fixture and ordered the private channel to share the broadcast with the state-run network Doordarshan.

The row had threatened to deprive cricket-crazy Indians of watching live broadcasts of the hotly-anticipated series, which begins on Saturday with the first of five ODIs in Karachi.

Hopes of a quick resolution to the wrangle seemed dim earlier in the day after Ten Sports had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against a lower court's order directing it to share the broadcast with Doordarshan.

Kapil Sibal, a lawyer for UAE channel, said they had volunteered to share the broadcast for the first match despite having exclusive rights in order not to disappoint the cricket fans. This was an order on the basis of an undertaking we voluntarily gave because we did not want to deprive people of the pleasure of watching the match."-AFP