Courtesy a free stream, cricket finds a few new fans

That may be so, but several zappy conversations among netizens point to people catching the ongoing T20 World Cup at the unlikeliest pockets of the world. ‘Money saved,’ a cricket viewer from Rome posted on X. ‘No more watching Amitabh Bachchan ads,’ said another from Berlin.

These are estimated to be Zoomers (born between 1996-2010) who moved from the Indian sub-continent to Europe for study or work, filled with glee to discover the icc.tv free – of cost and ads – live stream.

For the first time, the World Cup’s world feed is freely available on International Cricket Council’s (ICC) website and app to all regions of the globe outside cricket’s catchment market. It’s a shift of policy from handing out Rest of the world media rights for low revenue and relying on the primary broadcaster to sub-license it to local players.

“So far, it has completely exceeded our expectations,” said Finn Bradshaw, head of digital at ICC. “We have 3 million people who have watched a match. Also, the average watch-time is an hour, which shows people are not going away.”

A lot of the people watching the entire match are expats from the Indian sub-continent following their team. This inference is drawn from the log-in data. Other than attracting new fans, a key objective for cricket’s governing body is to derive country-wise fan data – absolute gold to drive future growth strategy.

Growing interest in Nepal

That’s how the ICC knows of the huge growth potential in Nepal. The hilly nation’s love for cricket may not be new-found but it has certainly grown exponentially after Nepal’s World Cup qualification.

The first-time entrants showed glimpses of form during the tournament. They ran South Africa close. But the unbridled support the Nepal team received from supporters who filled the Dallas and Florida stadium – they danced through the rains despite the wash-out against Sri Lanka – was indicative of genuine fandom – among expats on-ground and viewers online. Three of the top five most watched matches on the free stream feature Nepal, only behind India-Pakistan and India-Australia.

“We knew from the engagement during the qualifiers, how passionate the Nepal fans were. But we weren’t prepared. Our estimates were one-third of how it went. It blew us out of water,” said Bradshaw. “Nepal is only 30 million people, not a huge country. But cricket is better with fans like that.”

After Nepal, you wouldn’t have guessed, the live stream has received top viewership in Japan, Korea, Germany and Malaysia as per ICC data. Although detailed profile of these viewers is not available, cricket could be attracting some new fans.

Only some, as even a 20-team World Cup is just a start. Although the ICC is 108 member-strong; outside the 12 Test-playing nations, most teams are rated minnows. With no exclusive rights deals in Afghanistan, Netherlands and Papua New Guinea other than Nepal, fans had the opportunity to watch their teams play.

Matches are being streamed live in Israel, Slovakia, even Vatican City. But not until cricket debuts at Olympics 2028 would more people be able to figure why a six-run win for India over Pakistan is not the same as 119-113 as The New York Times reported. Some matches of the World Cup’s league stage were played in the USA. But for now, the American players as well as viewers are all expats from cricket-playing nations.

Expats, a fan base

For viewership, these expats are a fan base by themselves. Fantasy and predictor games are efforts to get them to watch matches other those featuring their nations.

“Among expats watching the live stream, we are conscious that people don’t move out for a couple of years but change their lives. We want to make sure that they and their kids don’t lose touch with cricket. Else, they might find other sports,” he said.

Buoyed by viewership for the free stream, the ICC could consider offering local commentary for certain pockets in future events. Interestingly, football country Brazil is having their own localized live stream of the T20 World Cup. ESPNBrasil is showing the semi-finals and the final of USA-West Indies 2024 in Portuguese with Brazil women’s captain Roberta Moretti Avery leading the broadcast.

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Top five most viewed matches on icc.tv

1.India-Pakistan

2.India-Australia

3.Nepal-South Africa

4.Nepal-Bangladesh

5.Nepal-Netherlands