Cricket Ireland has announced a title sponsorship deal with HBV Studios Ltd. for the Ireland Women’s multi-format series against South Africa Women. The series will begin on June 3 and will be known as ‘The HBV Studios International Women’s Cricket Series.’
HBV Studios is an Irish firm that offers live streaming, localisation, virtual events, digital media, audio and video studio hire, video editing, podcasting, and video production. The corporation was formed in 2012 and began live streaming sports events in 2016.
Cricket Ireland hired HBV Studios to live-stream its domestic cricket programme in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when attendance at sporting events around the world was confined. This collaboration grew into a three-year agreement to live stream cricket matches ranging from international to club cricket, including the upcoming series against the Proteas.
Heatley Tector, the Proprietor of HBV Studios Ltd., said, “It’s an immense privilege for us to be in a position to sponsor the upcoming Women’s series with South Africa. Women’s cricket has been growing exponentially across the world in recent years, and along with Cricket Ireland’s significant investment of €1.5M into the women’s game, it’s set to grow even further.
“I’ve been involved with Irish club cricket now for well over 40 years and I’m quite fortunate to be able to combine my personal sporting passion with my business, through our live streaming of more than 50 of Cricket Ireland’s international and domestic fixtures last year alone. Along with our sponsorship of the South African series, we will also be live streaming the matches to a worldwide audience.
“Live streaming is a fantastic way to show the Irish cricketing public and fans of cricket worldwide just how exceptionally talented our cricketers are. We achieved more than 6 million views of our live streams in 2021 and have had a strong start to 2022. The interest in Irish cricket continues to grow and we hope to continue to be part of that journey. We’re really looking forward to the South Africa series and we’d especially like to wish Gaby and the squad the very best of luck.”
Warren Deutrom, Chief Executive of Cricket Ireland, commented, “We are delighted to welcome HBV Studios on board as title sponsors of the Ireland v South African women’s series, ahead of what will be an extensive programme of matches for our women’s team this summer.
“HBV have been partners of Cricket Ireland for a number of years now, and this announcement today demonstrates not only how well the two organisations work together, but also that we are of common mind when it comes to our desire to grow the reach and profile of the women’s game.
“We’ve seen such incredible growth and professionalisation of the women’s game across several major nations like Australia, England and India and the strong focus on female cricket in the new ICC strategy. We in Ireland share those same ambitions for female cricket, ambitions laid out in both our Strategic Plan and our Women’s and Girls Cricket Action Plan. It is partnerships such as this with our friends in HBV that help raise the profile of the women’s game in Ireland, grow the sport in general, and put us firmly on the path of becoming a major nation in world cricket.”
The series begins this Friday at 4.30 pm local time with the first of three T20 Internationals between the teams at Pembroke Cricket Club.