Pakistan-India World Cup clash most viewed T20 in history: ICC

DUBAI: The high-octane clash between Pakistan and India at this year’s T20 Men’s World Cup garnered a record television reach of 167 million to become the most viewed international match of the format, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Thursday.

According to the statement issued by the global cricket body, the Pakistan-India encounter is now the most viewed T20I match in history, exceeding the previous high of the India-West Indies semi-final match from the 2016 edition of the ICC event held in India.

According to the ICC, the Pakistan-India match consumed for a record 15.9 billion minutes on the Star India Network by viewers in India, and the viewership for the match grew by 60 percent on the United Kingdom’s (UK) Sky UK. The overall viewership for the market went up by seven per cent in the UK, it added.

“The pinnacle of the shortest format of the sport offered explosive cricket and entertainment for everyone and featured cricket’s biggest names and best teams,” the statement said.

Nearly 10,000 hours of live coverage of the entire T20 World Cup tournament — more than ever before — was offered across television and digital platforms in 200 countries “at the back of increased viewership and consumption in India, Pakistan, the UK, Australia and the strategic market of the USA”, the ICC shared in its statement.

“Cricket and sports fans across the world enjoyed unparalleled coverage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021, when the tournament returned after five years,” it said, adding that the event was the biggest ever cricket tournament to be staged in the United Arab Emirates and Oman that “broke viewership records in several regions,” the ICC said.

In Pakistan, the cricket governing body said, the tournament was broadcast by three players for the first time, namely Pakistan Television Network, ARY and Ten Sports, which led to further growth in viewership by 7.3 per cent compared to the 2016 edition of the event.

“ICC’s partnership with Facebook was a driver for the significant increase in video views, with a total of 4.3bn views across all channels for the tournament, compared to 3.6bn views that were garnered for the 2019 edition of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup,” the cricket governing body said.

The highly-anticipated match had seen Pakistan writing history, beating India for the first time in a world cup fixture. In the thrilling contest, the Green Shirts had inflicted a chastening 10-wicket defeat on their arch-rivals.