After DD rewinds with Ramayan, sports channels will show old cricket matches for the last 45 years

• ICC opened 45 years of cricket footage archives for broadcasters.
• The ICC postponed all events scheduled before June 2020.
• The BCCI too postponed the IPL 2020 till April 15.

For those who are missing the IPL and lamenting over the delay of the T20 world cup, there is good news. The International Cricket Council said that it is opening its archive of cricket match footage for the last 45 years for its broadcast partners across the world.

This will allow cricket fans across the world to re-live some of the most iconic moments of cricket, including the 1983 World Cup in which India defeated West Indies to win its first world title.

ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said, “We are facing unprecedented times as a sports industry and the need to connect with our fan communities is perhaps greater than ever. With no live cricket to unite our fans around the world we thought the next best thing would be to release our archive to broadcast partners so fans can enjoy some magnificent memories.”

Broadcasters will decide what to show

While complete footage of the last 45 years has been made available, cricket fans will not be able to decide what to watch. The broadcasters will select the matches to show once they rework their programming schedules in the coming weeks.

The footage available to broadcasters includes matches starting form the 1975 World Cup and most knockout matches from subsequent editions. T20 fans who might be missing the IPL will get to watch the four editions of the Champions Trophy and five editions of T20 World Cup.

A lot of Indian broadcasters have been showing reruns of shows. Indian state owned television channel Doordarshan too has started showing shows from the 80s like Ramayan and Mahabharata.

Watch parties on Facebook

ICC also said that fans can also join the ‘watch parties’ that it will be hosting on its Facebook page. Some of the most iconic games will be replayed in full during these parties.

Eight ICC events postponed till June 2020

The ICC had yesterday announced that it is postponing eight ICC events, including the T20 World Cup qualifiers till June 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The IPL 2020 was postponed to April 15 due to the Coronavirus pandemic. As India is currently under a 21-day nationwide lockdown, the BCCI may soon take a call on the IPL 2020.

See also:

World Cup Cricket qualifiers, T20 and other events that ICC postponed

IPL 2020 postponed to April 15 as the game will have no ‘charisma’ without foreign players

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