Great news for cricket fans is the announcement of the widest ever broadcast coverage for the first standalone ICC Women’s World Twenty20.
The International Cricket Council announced on Wednesday the details of its broadcast coverage plans for the groundbreaking ICC Women’s World T20 2018 in the West Indies. The tournament, which has been separated from the men’s event for the first time to give its own identity and place in the international cricket calendar, will see all matches being broadcast live for the first time in more than 200 countries around the world.
Building on the momentum from last year’s women’s ICC Cricket World Cup, which broke all viewership records with 180-million people watching the final, the coverage is part of the ICC’s commitment to accelerating the growth of the women’s game. It also reflects a growing demand for women’s cricket: 70% of cricket’s one billion plus fans said they wanted more coverage of the women’s game in the recent ICC global market research project.
Star Sports, ICC’s Global Broadcast Partner, and its licensees will bring coverage to fans across the world through live and highlights television coverage in close to 160 territories, along with live digital coverage in over 200 territories.
‘The ICC Women’s World Cup last year proved that there is 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,’ said Aarti Singh Dabas, Head of Media Rights, Broadcast and Digital, ICC.
‘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,’ added Dabas.
The commentary line-up for the event features 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 amongst others in the 14-member panel.
The coverage, produced by ICC TV, will see a minimum of 22 cameras at all three venues and the semi-finals and the final in Antigua will also see the use of a Spidercam – the first time the camera is being used for cricket in the Caribbean.
The Decision Review System (DRS) using ball-tracking and edge detection technology, will be implemented for the first time at any ICC World Twenty20 event – men’s or women’s
‘The build-up to the ICC Women’s World T20 has been fantastic and the tournament is now upon us. I’m really happy to be part of the broadcast coverage and I’m looking forward to witnessing some top-class women’s cricket. I’m sure we will have a lot of exciting matches during the tournament,’ said former Australian women’s captain Lisa Sthalekar.
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
Source: ICC
Photo: Jan Kruger-IDI/IDI via Getty Images
