Broadcasting companies are turning to Taiwan for cricket content amid the shutdown of the sport in India due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An Internet streaming platform based in Mumbai, India, yesterday contacted Taiwan Cricket asking for rights to stream games in Taipei to its cricket-starved audience, which it put at 75 million people.
Yesterday, another India-based live sports streaming platform was seeking a “Taiwan cricket partnership.”
Photo: Grant Dexter, Taipei Times
The firms were promising global reach through their platforms with live content for users.
They also said that they were looking at basketball and soccer in Taiwan.
Taiwan Cricket — which is not recognized by the government — promotes the sport and organizes games among teams nationwide.
There are at least six sides who could potentially be part of a broadcast competition at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District: the Taipei Cricket Association, Pakistan Cricket Club Taipei, the Hsinchu Titans, the Taipei Dragons, Indian Cricket Club Taipei and Formosa Cricket Club.
Taiwan Cricket said that it was seeking advice from the teams and Taipei broadcasters to determine whether a deal was possible.
An upgrade to the cricketing infrastructure in Taipei would be of great benefit — a real investment in the game — if a deal is to be made, it said.
It said that it was speaking with the Indian firms and was planning to start broadcasting games on Saturday next week.
Cricket in India, as with almost all top sports leagues worldwide, has been postponed, with its Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 competition delayed until Wednesday next week, although that date seems likely to be pushed back further or the season canceled altogether.
The Sportsbusiness Web site yesterday reported that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which runs the IPL, had given permission to pay-TV broadcaster Star India to broadcast old matches amid the lack of live action.
“IPL will not happen this year. It will now happen next year. We all know how the situation is at the moment in the country and no one will take any risk,” a BCCI source told the Indian Express last week.
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