ICC announces the broadcast coverage for the first standalone World T20

Prior to the World T20, ICC (International Cricket Council) has announced the details of the broadcast coverage plans for the upcoming ICC Women’s World T20 2018 in the West Indies. The tournament is going to be the first stand-alone tournament of the year; where for the first time, all the matches will be broadcast live in more than 200 countries around the world.



Last year's ICC Cricket World Cup helped in the growth of Women's Cricket with the records of 180 million people watching the final. 70% of cricket’s fans have requested that they wanted more coverage of the games in the recent ICC global market research project.



Star Sports, ICC’s Global Broadcast Partner, will bring the live coverage to fans across the world through live and highlights television coverage in close to 160 territories. Digital platforms like Hotstar in India and other parts of the world and apps like ESPN will be there globally – across 200 territories.



The 19 broadcast partners have been confirmed for the mega event, including Star Sports (India and the rest of the Indian Sub-continent), Sky Sports (United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland), SuperSport (South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa), OSN (Middle East & North Africa), Fox Sports (Australia), Willow TV (USA), Sky TV (New Zealand), Ten Sports (Pakistan), ESPN (Caribbean), Gazi TV (Bangladesh), SLRC (Sri Lanka), Fox Networks Group (South East Asia) and Digicel (Pacific Islands). Moreover, the semi-finals and final will be broadcast live in China through Star Sports China and the Finals to be broadcast live to certain territories in South East Asia.



Digital clips will be available in the 179 countries, including Hotstar (India), BBC (UK & Ireland), ESPNcricinfo (UK & Australia), Cricbuzz (USA & Canada), OSN (MENA), Dialog (Sri Lanka), Cricingif (Pakistan), Bongo (SE Asia), Cricket Gateway (SE Asia & Australia), Bolt (SE Asia), SKY (New Zealand) and Channel 2 Group (UK & Ireland, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, Caribbean, Australia and SE Asia).



"The ICC Women’s World Cup last year proved that there is a huge demand for the women’s game. By providing extensive coverage of the pinnacle women’s event in the T20 format, we are catering to that growing demand from fans to have more and better coverage of women’s cricket," Aarti Singh Dabas, Head of Media Rights, Broadcast and Digital of ICC said.



"We are fortunate to have broadcast partners led by Star Sports who are committed to growing the women’s game and providing such broad coverage that will shine a light on new heroes and role models," she further added.



For this mega event, the commentary line-up also sees some of the big names of the cricketing circle; which includes former India captain Anjum Chopra, former Australia player Lisa Sthalekar, leading cricket broadcaster Melanie Jones, former England captain Nasser Hussain, former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar and former West Indies bowler Ian Bishop etc in the 14-member panel.



The Commentators’ Team: Melanie Jones, Lisa Sthalekar, Ebony Rainford-Brent, Nasser Hussain, Ian Bishop, Lesley Murdoch, Sanjay Manjrekar, Anjum Chopra, Alan Wilkins, Tom Moody, Mark Butcher, Daren Ganga, Natalie Germanos and HD Ackerman