By Rahul Banerji
With the World Cup around the corner, let us take an occasional dip into cricket. Golf will be the staple, and the willow sport the achaar.
So, even as Team India fly out for their World Cup campaign with Virat Kohli averring there was no scope for complacency despite being one of the favourites, Star Sports has said it would telecast all the warm-up games leading up to the tournament.
The World Cup gets under way on May 30 but ahead of that, each team will play two rehearsal games to fine-tune final preparations. For India, the warm-up is scheduled for Saturday, May 25, against New Zealand with the telecast starting at 3 pm.
The second game, aganst Bangladesh, is three days later, on May 28, at the same time.
In a statement, Star Sports said its network would telecast the warm-up games in English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali and Malayalam.
There will be additional programming in the form of the Star Sports Select Dugout that will use graphics and augmented reality (AR), video based commentary, live demos from cricket experts and deeper fan engagement with responses by experts to tweets from fans.
ICC’s initiatives
Meanwhile, the International Cricket Council on the day announced broadcast and digital distribution plans for the World Cup on a wide range of platforms across television, radio and digital platforms, as well as news, in cinemas, at fan parks and via other media rights partners.
With support from global broadcast partner Star Sports, the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 will be broadcast live to more than 200 territories via 25 broadcast partners, the ICC said.
The tournament will also be broadcast across seven regional language feeds in India, with Star Sports assembling a team of 50 of the world’s best commentators and producing feeds in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bangla and Marathi.
Twelve matches will be broadcast in Malayalam via Asianet Plus. Star Sports will also carry all ICC TV produced matches in English.
Around the world, the tournament will be broadcast on Star Sports (India and the rest of the Indian sub-continent), Sky Sports (United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland), and SuperSport (South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa), OSN (Middle East & North Africa).
In Australia, it will be Fox Sports Australia and Channel 9, Willow TV (USA), Sky TV and Prime (New Zealand), Ten Sports and PTV (Pakistan), ESPN (Caribbean), Gazi TV, Maasranga and BTV (all Bangladesh), SLRC (Sri Lanka) and Fox Network Group (China and South East Asia), Digicel (Asia Pacific), Radio Television Afghanistan (Afghanistan) and Yupp TV (Continental Europe and Central Asia).
Matches will also be live on Hotstar, the web application.
Schedule of warm-up games telecast
Friday, May 24: Sri Lanka vs South Africa at 3 pm on Star Sports 2+Star Sports 2 HD; and Pakistan vs Afghanistan at 3 pm on Star Sports 1+Star Sports 1HD+Star Sports 1 Hindi + Star Sports 1 HD Hindi + Star Sports 1 Tamil + Star Sports 1 Telugu + Star Sports 1 Kannada + Star Sports 1 Bangla.
Saturday, May 24: India vs New Zealand at 3 pm on Star Sports 1+Star Sports 1HD+Star Sports 1 Hindi + Star Sports 1 HD Hindi + Star Sports 1 Tamil + Star Sports 1 Telugu + Star Sports 1 Kannada + Star Sports 1 Bangla+ Star Sports Select 1+ Star Sports Select 1 HD + Asianet Plus SD; and England vs Australia at 3 pm on Star Sports 2+Star Sports 2 HD.
Sunday, May 26: Pakistan vs Bangladesh at 3 pm on Star Sports 1+Star Sports 1HD+Star Sports 1 Hindi + Star Sports 1 HD Hindi + Star Sports 1 Tamil + Star Sports 1 Telugu + Star Sports 1 Kannada + Star Sports 1 Bangla + Star Sports Select 1+Star Sports Select 1 HD; and South Africa vs West Indies at 3 pm Star Sports 2+Star Sports 2 HD.
Monday, May 27: England vs Afghanistan at 3 pm on Star Sports 1+Star Sports 1HD+Star Sports 1 Hindi + Star Sports 1 HD Hindi + Star Sports 1 Tamil + Star Sports 1 Telugu + Star Sports 1 Kannada + Star Sports 1 Bangla; and Australia vs Sri Lanka at 3 pm on Star Sports 2+Star Sports 2 HD.
Tuesday, May 28: India vs Bangladesh at 3 pm on Star Sports 1+Star Sports 1HD+Star Sports 1 Hindi + Star Sports 1 HD Hindi + Star Sports 1 Tamil + Star Sports 1 Telugu + Star Sports 1 Kannada + Star Sports 1 Bangla + Star Sports Select 1+Star Sports Select 1 HD + Asianet Plus SD; and West Indies vs New Zealand at 3 pm on Star Sports 2+Star Sports 2 HD.
Also read: Even at the Indian Open, cricket ain’t too far away
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