All India Radio (AIR) has bagged the deal to broadcast the commentary of the upcoming cricket games between India and Australia. India is set to play games across all formats in Australia. The one-day international series is set to kick off an entertaining series with the first ODI set to be played at Sydney Cricket Ground on November 27.
Prasar Bharti CEO Shashi Shekhar confirmed the news to Pune Mirror. Shekhar said, “We have got radio rights for the series, and AIR will be broadcasting all the games.” He also confirmed that Doordarshan would only be telecasting the limited-overs series from the tour Downunder. Cricket will be returning to AIR after a long time as the Indian team has not played an international game since February.
Viewers in India will be able to watch the series on Sony Pictures Network (SPN). The Indian audience can enjoy commentary in four different languages on SPN. It remains to be seen whether there will be multiple language commentary on AIR.
All broadcasters (both Radio and television) will be looking to get a lot of advertisement revenue from this series as the Indian team is playing an international series after a long time. Moreover, the rivalry between India and Australia adds further spice to the series.
India was displaced from top place in the world test championship recently after the International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to tweak the table since many series were wiped out due to the pandemic. The men in blue need to win at least a couple of test matches in Australia to stay in the hunt for a place in the final of the championship and retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy.