Live Cricket
This article covers cricket broadcasting rights. For a list of sports broadcasting rights by country, see List of sports television broadcasting agreements. International cricket rights are secured in some countries and must be broadcast live and free-to-air.
Content rights holders in India are required to share feeds with national broadcaster Doordarshan for “sports events of national importance”. Doordarshan can only telecast the game on terrestrial TV and its own live home platform. They are not allowed to share these signals with cable operators and other DTH providers. All official One Day Internationals, T20s and Test matches played by the Indian men’s cricket team since 2017, the semi-finals and finals of the Men’s World Cup and the International Cricket Council Championship Trophy are considered cricket events of “national importance”.
In Australia an anti-siphoning list gives free-to-air broadcasters the first right to negotiate. For cricket, this includes all Test matches played at home in Australia or in England, home ODIs and home T20 Internationals. It also includes Australia’s matches in the World Cup or World Twenty20 and the final of any tournament hosted in Australia or New Zealand.
UK Test matches involving the English national team and World Cup matches with home nations as well as semi-final and final games and other listed and designated events are included in the Ofcom Code’s Category B list. Category B events are allowed to be broadcast on pay TV if there is adequate secondary coverage in the form of highlights and delayed broadcasts.
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players each on a field centered on a 22-yard (20-metre) pitch with one wicket at each end, three balanced two wickets each. A stump game proceeds when a player of the fielding team, called the bowler, “bowls” (drives) the ball from one end of the pitch towards the wicket at the other end, legally completing an “over” after doing so. Surgery. The batting side has one player at each end of the pitch, the player at the opposite end of the pitch from the bowler aims to hit the ball with the bat. The batting side scores when either the bowler fouls the batter, the ball reaches the boundary, or the two batters swap ends of the pitch, resulting in a run. The aim of the fielding team is to prevent run-scoring and to dismiss each batter (hence they are “out” and said to have “lost a wicket”). To be out means to be bowled, when the bowled ball hits the stumps and dislodges the bails, and is either caught by the fielding side before a hit ball touches the ground, or the batter hits the wicket with the ball before it crosses the crease line. To complete the run in front of the wicket. When ten batters are out, the innings ends and the teams swap. At the end of the game, the team that scores more runs wins, provided the other team has completed one or two of its allotted innings. In international matches the game is refereed by two umpires with the assistance of a third umpire and the match referee.
From T20s each team bats for a single innings of 20 overs and the game usually lasts three hours, until Test matches are played over five days. Traditionally cricketers play in white kits, but in limited overs cricket they wear club or team colours. In addition to the basic kit, some players wear protective gear to prevent injuries caused by the ball, which is made of a tough, hard round compressed leather with a slightly raised stitched seam surrounding a cork core layered with tightly wound string.
Cricket is first mentioned in South East England in the mid 16th century. It spread worldwide with the expansion of the British Empire through the first international matches in the second half of the 19th century. The game’s governing body is the International Cricket Council (ICC), which has over 100 members, including twelve full members who play Test matches. The Laws of the Game, the Laws of Cricket, are maintained by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in London. The game is primarily followed in South Asia, Australia, United Kingdom, South Africa and West Indies.
Women’s cricket, which is organized and played separately, has also achieved international standards. The most successful team in international cricket is Australia, which has won seven one-day international trophies, including five World Cups, more than any other nation and has had more Test teams than any other nation.