MUMBAI: The tenth edition of the tournament will be staged across seven venues in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from 14 February to 1 March, and the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) global broadcast partner Star Sports is stepping up its production, as it gets set to make history.
More cricket fans than ever before will be able to enjoy watching the most far-reaching and comprehensive coverage of an ICC U19 Cricket World Cup (ICC U19 CWC).
Following up on its world-class production of the ICC Champions Trophy 2013, Star Sports will produce 11 matches in High Definition (HD) - the most matches ever at an ICC U19 CWC.
Star Sports business head sports Nitin Kukreja said, “The ICC U19 Cricket World Cup is a premier tournament which showcases cricket’s future super stars. We have mounted an unprecedented production and broadcast effort to take cricket aficionados even closer to the action than ever before. We are confident that cricket fans will enjoy introduction of LED stumps for the very first time in an ICC tournament which will further enhance the broadcast experience.”
The event is set to reach an estimated audience of 1.3 billion, with broadcast agreements secured by Star Sports. This includes the continued coverage by ICC broadcast partners, Fox Sports in Australia, Sky Sports in the United Kingdom, OSN across Middle East and North Africa, ESPN in North America and the Caribbean and Sky NZ in New Zealand.
The Dubai International Cricket Stadium will be the main TV venue for the tournament while one match from the Sharjah Cricket Stadium will also be broadcast live. All televised matches will be covered using 14 cameras, including ball tracking and virtual graphics provided by Hawk-Eye.
ICC chief executive David Richardson said: “The expanded broadcast and digital reach of this edition of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup will ensure that more fans globally now have an opportunity to see the sport’s future stars in action.”
For the first-time in an ICC event, LED stumps will be used to provide the television viewers and spectators at the venue an enhanced experience. The stumps and bails illuminate when the bails are dislodged, giving the broadcaster and the crowd a true indication of when a batsman is out. They will be used for the semi-finals and final only.
The live broadcast will be complimented by a world-class commentary team, which includes Harsha Bhogle, Sanjay Manjrekar, Damien Martyn, Danny Morrison, Jonty Rhodes, Wasim Akram and Alan Wilkins.
The TV broadcast of the event will be a truly interactive one for fans, who can stay engaged through polls on the event website www.icc-cricket.com and via the social media using the hashtag #futurestars and #u19cwc.
Fans can also stay updated on the event via the event website www.icc-cricket.com which will feature live scores of all the matches and video clips of the key moments from the televised matches.
