Dubai, Feb 5 (IANS) The ICC has unveiled the broadcast plans for the Men’s T20 World Cup, featuring 20 teams and 55 matches, running from February 7 to March 8.

Co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka, the tournament will be accessible worldwide through TV, digital, audio, and emerging platforms.

Alongside the main tournament, official warm-up matches will be broadcast on select TV and digital platforms, allowing fans to get an early look at the teams before the opening game.

In India, JioStar will broadcast the tournament to fans via Star Sports on linear TV and through the JioHotstar digital platform.

All fixtures will be accessible in five languages—English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada—on JioStar’s TV and digital coverage, with additional regional feeds in Bengali, Bhojpuri, and Haryanvi available on JioHotstar.

Coverage in Marathi and Indian Sign Language will also be provided for all team India matches, semi-finals, and the final on JioHotstar.

Building on the success of earlier ICC events, a vertical live feed will be offered in English and Hindi on JioHotstar, catering to mobile-first viewers.

In addition, on JioHotstar, viewers will also have the option to enjoy the games in 360 view and via the Multi-cam feature, which allows engagement with the live match from specific POVs/vantage points, including Hero, Stump, Battery, Field view, and Multi-View.

JioStar has partnered with PVR – Inox for nationwide screenings of multiple matches during the T20 World Cup.

Star Sports will also be accessible to viewers in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives through its distribution partners across the subcontinent.

For co-host Sri Lanka, Dialog TV will serve as the official broadcast partner, offering extensive coverage across the island. This includes live telecasts on linear TV, the ThePapare.com website, and the Dialog Play mobile app.

Additionally, Dialog TV will provide a Sinhala language feed for all matches on both their linear and digital platforms.

Coverage will be further expanded through Dialog TV’s free-to-air partner, TV Supreme, as well as Sri Lanka Telecom’s PEO TV platform.

Fans in the United Kingdom and Ireland can watch the action on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event, with digital streaming through NOW. Sky Sports will also offer Hindi commentary for the semi-finals and the final.

Furthermore, since Italy is participating in their first ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, Sky Italia will broadcast all Italy matches, along with the semi-finals and the final, live on their platforms.

Proteas fans can catch all the live action through SuperSport’s extensive TV and digital services across sub-Saharan Africa.

In Australia, coverage will be on Prime Video, with an extra Hindi commentary feed accessible for all India matches, semi-finals, and the final.

Fans in New Zealand can watch the matches on SKY Sport, which will also provide Hindi commentary for all India games, including the semi-finals and the final.

In Pakistan, coverage will be provided by PTV and Myco, with support from digital partners Tamasha, ARY Zapp, and Tapmad. Additionally, the ICC will create an Urdu commentary feed for Pakistan matches, which will be broadcast on PTV Home and streamed by digital partners.

Willow TV will continue providing live coverage of ICC events in the United States and Canada. All 55 matches will be streamed in both English and Hindi, with free access to all USA matches for viewers in the US and Canada. These matches will also be available free of charge on Willow’s official YouTube channel.

Commentary in English and Hindi will be accessible via Willow DTC and CricBuzz DTC platforms, while other Willow platforms will carry only the English commentary. In partnership with popular social media personality Jomboy, Willow will offer fans an alternative commentary option for the USA vs. India and USA vs. Pakistan matches.

In the UAE and the larger MENA region, the tournament will be broadcast on CricLife Max, which is accessible via StarzPlay. Moreover, fans throughout the Middle East can watch StarzPlay’s coverage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup on the big screen, thanks to partnerships with VOX (UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman), Reel (UAE), Roxy, Cinepolis, Star (UAE), Mukta (Bahrain), and Epix Cinema (Bahrain).

ESPN will broadcast all matches live in the Caribbean Islands, while the Disney+ app will stream the event across Latin America. Additionally, some matches will feature Portuguese commentary on ESPN’s linear TV platforms in Brazil.

Total Sports Management (Bangladesh) will broadcast the event via leading linear channels T Sports & Nagorik TV, as well as on the digital platform Rabbithole.

Additional broadcasters include PNG Digicel (Pacific Islands), Hub Sports 4 (Singapore), and Lemar TV (Afghanistan), which will also offer commentary in Pashto and Dari. In Nepal, Kantipur TV will air the tournament, with some matches produced locally in Nepali.

The Nepali commentary will also be accessible in certain regions through ICC.tv, expanding reach to Nepali-speaking viewers. In the Netherlands, NOS will live stream all matches involving the Netherlands, catering to cricket fans in the country.

For viewers in Malaysia and Hong Kong, matches can be watched on the CricBuzz channel through their partnerships with Astro Cricket and PCCW.

Additionally, the tournament will be available in-flight and at sea on Sport 24, allowing fans to stay up to date on the action while travelling.

All remaining territories will be streamed live and free via the ICC’s own platform, ICC.tv. Besides live match coverage, ICC.tv will offer commentary in multiple languages, including Japanese and Bahasa, with some matches also available live on the ICC’s official YouTube channel.

Besides live video, the ICC mobile app will also offer worldwide access to commentary in English. In the UK and Ireland, BBC will broadcast radio coverage, while in Australia, listeners can tune into ABC and SEN.

For Indian audiences, All India Radio will offer live audio commentary, and in Sri Lanka, Derana FM will provide live ball-by-ball commentary for all matches.

–IANS

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