MUMBAI: News Corp controlled UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB has obtained the UK telecast rights of the ICC World Cup tournament to be played in March 2003 and the ICC Champions Trophy to be held in September 2002.
Under the new deals Sky Sports has secured exclusive live coverage of every match in the 14-team ICC Cricket World Cup tournament, staged in South Africa from 8 February to 23 March 2003. It will also exclusively cover every match in the 12-team One-Day International ICC Champions Trophy tournament held in Sri Lanka from 12 to 30 September 2002.
Next years ICC Cricket World Cup will be the fourth to be broadcast live by Sky Sports, says an official release. When two matches are played at the same time, Sky digital viewers will be able to choose which to watch by pressing the red button on the Sky remote control and selecting from an interactive menu, says the release.
The ICC Champions Trophy featuring Australia, India, South Africa and England will be screened live on Sky Sports Extra, beginning with Sri Lanka vs Pakistan on 12 September.
The cricketing events to which Sky holds telecast rights for the rest of the year include -
* ICC Champions Trophy: 12th 30th September
* South Africa vs Bangladesh: 3rd 29th October
* Australia vs England The Ashes: 7th Nov 6th January
* South Africa vs Sri Lanka: 8th Nov 6th December
* South Africa vs Pakistan: 8th Dec 6th January
* VB Series: 13th - 27th January
* ICC Cricket World Cup: 8th Feb 23rd March
Next year's World Cup, to be staged between 8 February and 23 March, will be the fourth that BSkyB has broadcast.
The rights for the ICC's tournaments, distributed thus far by Global Cricket Corporation, a JV between News Corp and World Sport Nimbus, will now be distributed by News Corp till 2007.
