MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports (ESS), Asia‘s leading sports broadcast network, has signed new carriage deals for its cricket dedicated channel Star Cricket in the Philippines and Indonesia, highlighting its expanding footprint beyond traditional cricket markets.

In addition, with a new carriage deal for Star Cricket recently secured in Indonesia, cricket fans across the country can anticipate the channel to being available very soon.

Launched in 2007 in the Indian sub-continent, Star Cricket has continued to expand in non-traditional cricket markets over the years with presence in South East Asian markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, the Maldives and now the Philippines.

ESS also successfully launched Star Cricket HD in July last year in key markets across Asia such as India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Singapore.

ESPN Star Sports MD Peter Hutton said, "We‘re delighted to be able to help the ICC grow the game worldwide, and to see Star Cricket increase its popularity across Asia."

Star Cricket features international cricket events across all formats of the game and its line-up of cricket properties includes the marquee International Cricket Council (ICC) events, international and domestic cricket from India, Australia and England and Champions League Twenty20.

In addition, it also showcased the inaugural edition of the Sri Lankan Premier League and the Bangladesh Premier League earlier this year.