MUMBAI: One of the ways for an American broadcaster to tap into the rich pockets of the non resident Indian is cricket. Realising this US pay TV platform DirecTV has announced that it has done deals for the acquisition of West Indies and England cricket.

With this DirecTV now owns the rights to eight of the top 11 cricket-playing nations

The West Indies agreement which was done through Setanta Sport in Dublin, will allow DirecTV to exclusively offer cricket matches for two years and includes tours from nations such as India, Pakistan, South Africa, Australia and Zimbabwe. The English cricket agreement, also from Setanta Sport, will offer the Ashes tour of Australia and also Bangladesh.

As had been reported last month by Indiantelevision.com Ten Sports signed a deal with DirecTV to offer live action from each and every international cricket match played in Sri Lanka till 2008. For Ten Sports the deal will help the broadcaster reach out to the ever-growing community of South Asians in the US.

All these offerings will be a part of DirecTV's CricketTicket, which is the first-ever season-long subscription TV package for international cricket in the US. It was launched in November 2004.

The second season of CricketTicket begins with the South African tour of the West Indies. It will include more than 180 days of cricket through 2005 and is available for $225. Tours can also be purchased a la carte. In December 2004 DirecTV had announced that it acquired rights for all international cricket matches to be played in Bangladesh till 2008.