Sky Sports has sealed the deal to get the broadcast rights in the United Kingdom for the limited-overs series between England and India during March. It was previously reported that Sky Sports was leading the race for these rights after losing the deal for the test series to Channel 4. BT Sports and Channel 4 were also reportedly in the mix to get rights for the white ball series.
England pacer Stuart Broad will be on the commentary team for Sky Sports during the limited-overs series. Broad is currently part of England’s test squad, but he doesn’t feature in ODI and T-20 squads. Dinesh Karthik will be also part of the commentary team along with David Lloyd, Nasser Hussain, Michael Atherton, Ian Ward, Ebony Rainford-Brent and Rob Key.
Along with agreeing to the deal with primary broadcaster Star Sports for this series, Sky Sports has also negotiated terms for future series involving India. They also bagged rights for India’s home tours against South Africa (Oct 2021), New Zealand (November 2021), West Indies (January 2022) and Sri Lanka (February 2022).
With the help of this deal with Star Sports, Sky Sports continues to add more cricket action to their roaster. They already have deals in place for ICC tournaments and home series of England, Pakistan, and South Africa. Sky Sports has completely taken over coverage of cricket in the UK by also getting the broadcast rights for Pakistan Premier League and Indian Premier League.
The English cricket team is set to play five T-20 internationals after four-match test series at Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad. Both teams will then move to Pune for three ODI games at Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium. The immediate focus of both teams will be on the third test match in Ahmedabad on February 24. This match will be India’s second day-night test match in home conditions.