Twenty20 World Cup cricket to be telecast in 216 countries

New Delhi, May 26 (ANI): The global broadcast and production partner of the International Cricket Council, ESPN STAR Sports, has announced that the high profile Twenty20 World Cup cricket to be held in June will be telecast in 216 countries.

This was disclosed by R C Venkatesh, Managing Director ESPN Software India Private Limited at a press conference in the national capital, New Delhi on Tuesday. Also present on the occasion were former Test players Sanjay Manjrekar of India and Wasim Akram of Pakistan.

The women cricket is also all set to get a boost as the sports broadcasters have announced that they will relay live telecast the semi-finals and finals of the women's Twenty20 World Cup cricket scheduled later this year.

Star cricket and ESPN, both have tried to ensure that the commentary panel has representation from almost all cricket playing countries which they say is done to lend truly a global colour to the telecast.

Some of the former cricket stars who will don the hat of commentator are Wasim Akram, Sanjay Manjrekar, Ian Chappell and Nasser Hussain.

The ESPN STAR Sports witnessed phenomenal viewership in the first edition of the event in 2007.

In fact, the finals of the event played between archrivals India and Pakistan created a new Indian record when the TVR touched a peak of 15.2, a figure never achieved on Indian television.

This time also the ESPN STAR Sports tie-up is expecting a high voltage drama.

R C Venkatesh depicted in detail the plans that the broadcasters have planned to increase the viewership.

The ICC World Twenty20 will be broadcast by ESPN STAR Sports as a part of its eight year agreement with ICC. (ANI)