The biggest cricketing event of the year, the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 is underway, with defending champions England taking on New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
For Indian fans, the competition will be aired on Disney Star‘s top sports channel, Star Sports and OTT platform, Disney+ Hotstar.
For the quadrennial cricketing event, India’s top media firm and official coverage provider of the fixtures, Star Sports has announced multiple brands as sponsors. As official broadcast partners, the network has roped in PhonePe, Mahindra and Mahindra, Charged Energy Drink, Glow & Lovely, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Emirates, Havells Lloyd, IndusInd Bank, Seagram’s Royal Stag, Jindal Panther, Mutual Funds Sahi Hai, and Polycab. The 45-day competition will provide ample exposure to the sponsors.
This would be the first time India is helming the top competition as a single host. The tournament will follow the same rules as the 2019 Cricket World Cup. The top four teams from the participating 10 countries, India, England, Pakistan, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and the Netherlands, will advance to the semi-finals after playing each other once in a round-robin format.
In all, 48 games will be contested in 10 different venues around India, from the northern city of Dharamsala to the southern cities of Bangalore and Chennai.
Team India will leave no stone unturned to capture its third ODI world title, and with the event happening at home, the side will surely back themselves. The Men in Blue will begin their campaign against the five-time winners, Australia, on Sunday, October 8, in Chennai.
For the inaugural match on the OTT platform, at least 40 lakh viewers have been logged in thus far. With time, as the match and tournament progresses, these figures will only rise, and India’s matches will undoubtedly smash viewing records one after the other.