Indian Cricket League (ICL) 20-20 Second Season Live in TV Channels
The much-awaited second season of Indian Cricket League (ICL) will begin today (10 October 2008) with the first tournament of this season, ICL 20-20 Indian Championship, 2008/09, gets underway. After an expected glittering opening ceremony, defending champion Hyderabad Heroes will take on Lahore Badshahs in the first match of the tournament tonight. From the title you can understand that I am going to talk about the television coverage of the second season of ICL. Now, let’s start with television coverage of the Indian Cricket League (ICL) second season.
This season, the television coverage for ICL matches will be huge. Last season, about 55 million people enjoy ICL tournaments. This amount will be almost double this time as a lot of television channels across four continents will broadcast the ICL matches live. In fact, over 100 million people are expected to enjoy the exciting cricket extravaganza of Indian Cricket League (ICL) matches this season. Except South America, the ICL matches will be available in other continents. There is no doubt, a lot more people outside India will be able to watch the matches of ICL. Here, I am giving the names of the television channels which will broadcast the ICL matches of second season live for their viewers:
Ten Sports
Ten Sports will broadcast all the ICL matches of second season live for the cricket fans in India, Pakistan as well as Middle East. I think, through Ten Sports, ICL will get huge exposure in South Asia and Middle East regions as this channel is one of the most popular sports channel in these two regions and it has strong viewer base in South Asia and Middle East. Moreover, cricket is very popular in these two regions and I think, a lot of people will watch the second season matches of ICL through Ten Sports. Ten Sports will air English commentary of some of the popular commentators of cricket world. Moreover, there will be many cricket fans from Pakistan who will follow the ICL matches as there is a team from Pakistan called Lahore Badshahs.
Zee Sports
In India, Hindi language audience will get to watch the ICL matches with Hindi commentary on Zee Sports. So, Indian cricket fans have the choice of watching ICL matches either on Ten Sports with English commentary or on Zee Sports with Hindi commentary. USA cricket fans will be able to watch the ICL matches live on Zee Sports too. Zee Sports telecast the matches of the opening season of ICL too. I think, this season, Zee Sports will have more television viewers than the previous season.
BTV, and ATN Bangla
BTV is the only terrestrial television channel in Bangladesh, while ATN Bangla is one of the most popular private channels in Bangladesh. From the official website of Indian Cricket League (ICL), I got to know that these two television channel will bring the live action of ICL season 2 matches. No doubt, as there is a team from Bangladesh called Dhaka Warriors, many passionate cricket fans will follow the match of ICL this season in order to see how the Bengal tigers play against other international players.
I think, it would be very nice if BTV really telecast the ICL matches and BTV is available in every corner of the country and cricket is most popular game in Bangladesh; both in the urban and rural areas. However, I am not yet sure if BTV will cover the ICL tournament or not because so far, I have not seen any promotional ad in BTV about ICL tournament. However, even if BTV does not show the matches, still ICL will get much exposure through ATN Bangla in Bangladesh.
Some other television Channels
There are some other television channels from different countries who will also broadcast the ICL matches live. Gateway TV, a popular television channel based in Southwestern Nigeria, will bring the live action of ICL second season matches for the North African viewers. India based Zee TV will show the ICL matches live in other parts of Africa. Australian viewers will be able to watch the matches live on Fox Sports TV channel. Zee Music will show the ICL matches live for the UK cricket fans. Telkom-Malysia & Astro will broadcast the matches for the Malaysian cricket fans.
ICL Web Partners
There are some web partners of Indian Cricket League (ICL). They are: www.bollywood.tv, www.glutv.com, www.mypopkorn.com & www.watchindiatv.com. ICL matches will also be available live in these websites too.
