ICC inks new deal with Cricket Australia

Cricket Australia to allow the ICC to broadcast its schedule on ICC.tv.

The International Cricket Council has signed up with Australian cricket board, Cricket Australia (CA), which will see the ICC gain broadcasting rights to CA’s schedule on ICC’s recently launched ICC.tv. The partnership’s goal is to market the game to the European and Southeast Asian markets.

The partnership will have the ICC stream all of Australian men’s and women’s games from September end, covering the entire 2021-22 Australian calendar including both the men’s and women’s Ashes and the ODI tours by Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

Speaking about the new partnership, Cricket Australia’s Head of Media Rights, Nikki Linney, commented:

“We’re incredibly excited to work with the ICC to continue to grow cricket, and bring our distinctive Aussie flavour of cricket to more fans around the world. There will be some excited Australian and English expats living or even holidaying in these countries who’ll now be able to easily access what promises to be a massive home summer with the men’s and women’s Ashes. We know that in countries like Germany, Hong Kong and Japan there is already a significant cricket fan base and we are hoping to see this in neighbouring countries too.”

ICC Head of Digital, Finn Bradshaw, added:

“Through this unique partnership with Cricket Australia we will bring competitive and quality cricket to the cricket starved markets of Southeast Asia and Europe, as well as other regions that do not currently have a broadcast partner. This confirms our commitment to grow consumption of cricket and make it accessible to the world.”

The plan for both the parties is to broadcast the game to the so-called emerging cricket markets in Europe and Southeast Asia, where the ICC wants the game to grow and become more popular.