STAR family to launch cricket channel

ESPN-STAR
Sports Tuesday announced the launch a cricket specific channel for June this
year.

The new channel would telecast 24 test matches and 42 One-day Internationals in
the current year, including

India’s
upcoming tour of

England
comprising four tests and seven One-day Internationals.

ESPN-STAR Sports will also beam the Twenty20 World Championship from

South Africa in
September by virtue of having won the rights to telecast International Cricket
Council tournaments till 2012. The Twenty20 tournament is the first of the
several tournaments it will telecast.

‘The launch of STAR Cricket is part of our long term strategy to further
strengthen our offering to the sports fans in the country,’ said R.C.
Venkateish, managing director of ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd.

STAR Cricket will be the 15th channel from the ESPN-STAR Sports family in the
Asia Pacific region.

The channel will also showcase feature cricket programme, including reality
shows, archival programming and magazine shows.

ESPN-STAR Sports’ expert commentator Ravi Shastri, who will be going to

Bangladesh as
the Indian team’s cricket manager, welcomed the new channel.

‘Cricket is a religion in

India
– the interest, passion and emotion this game evokes will remain unmatched for
all times to come,’ he said.

‘There is a huge interest for live, quality, first class cricketing action from
the top test playing nations as well as content meticulously customised for the
Indian audiences.’

Presenter Harsha Bhogle said the channel would have everything to satiate fans’
hunger.

‘I hope a real cricket lover will feel he is at home with STAR Cricket for he
will get to see more than international cricket,’ he said.