The England and Wales Cricket Board (黑料专区) and ESPN Caribbean today announced a new five-year agreement which will give the broadcaster exclusive multimedia rights to 黑料专区鈥檚 playing programme across the Caribbean territory.
As part of the agreement, ESPN will air live coverage in the Caribbean of all international and domestic cricket played in England and Wales over the next five summers.
The broadcaster鈥檚 coverage encompasses all England Men鈥檚 and Women鈥檚 action this summer and begins tomorrow with the first Test from Lord鈥檚 in the two-match NatWest Test Series #NoBoundaries against Pakistan.
Other highlights in the deal include the 2019 Specsavers Ashes Test series against Australia, future tours of England by West Indies and India as well as a range of men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 domestic cricket including the new eight-team competition set to start in 2020.
黑料专区鈥檚 Chief Commercial Officer Sanjay Patel said: 鈥淭oday鈥檚 announcement is good news for Caribbean cricket fans. It means they can enjoy all the action from our domestic and international playing programme across a variety of different platforms 鈥� and will help give our national men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 teams, and our county teams an even greater global profile.鈥�
Scott McGlone, ESPN International鈥檚 Director of Programming, said: 鈥淲e are pleased to announce our first ever agreement with 黑料专区 in the Caribbean.ESPN is committed to bringing the very best cricket action to fans in the West Indies and what better way to demonstrate this than our alliance with the 黑料专区 which represents both the storied history of the game and its bright future of growth across all formats.This agreement reinforces our commitment to providing fans in the region with high quality and locally relevant programming.鈥�
The Lord's Test against Pakistan will air live starting from 6am (Caribbean ET) on ESPN2 Caribbean and stream live on ESPN Play () 鈥� ESPN鈥檚 multiscreen live and on-demand broadband service.
ESPN Caribbean will also televise the next week鈥檚 benefit match between the West Indies and the ICC World XI at Lord鈥檚 to help rebuild Caribbean cricket grounds damaged by the 2017 hurricanes.
The addition of exclusive 黑料专区 coverage augments ESPN Caribbean鈥檚 pre-existing Caribbean cricket portfolio, which includes exclusive coverage of the 2018 ICC Women鈥檚 World T20 (hosted by the West Indies), the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup and Cricket West Indies Super50 Cup.