Organisers of the Caribbean Premier League Twenty20 cricket competition are forecasting an uplift in global television reach to 200 million people ahead of the tournament’s 2014 edition, which begins next month.
Pay-television broadcasters including BT Sport in the UK, Fox Sports in Australia and India’s Sony Six, along with the online streaming service of US sports network ESPN, have signed up to show the CPL.
Damien O'Donohoe, chief executive of the Caribbean Premier League, said: “We were delighted to have 35 million people tune in to last year's competition, and we're confident that this time around we'll be able to dramatically increase that number, given the presence of some of the world's most prominent broadcasters. The CPL is establishing itself as one of the globe's most exciting sporting competitions and we're seeing that off the pitch as well as on it.”
The tournament gets under way in Grenada on July 11 when the host island’s Amazon Warriors take on Antigua Hawksbills at the National Cricket Stadium.