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ICC Women T20 World Cup delivers record-breaking fan engagement numbers
Sports Desk
ISLAMABAD (April 2, 2020):-The International Cricket Council (ICC) today revealed record digital and broadcast viewing figures for the ICC Women’sT20 World Cup 2020, which has become one of the most watched women’s sporting events in history as the sport continues to set new benchmarks on and off the field.
ICC’s digital channels were in overdrive during the 21 February to 8 March event in Australia, with an astonishing 1.1 billion total video views, making it the most watched ICC women’s event ever and the second most successful ICC event after the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019.
The figure was more than 20 times the video views delivered in the previous edition played in the West Indies in 2018 and 10 times the previous most successful women’s cricket event, which was the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2017.
The record-breaking trend continued via broadcast with the final of the event achieving record viewership in both India and Australia, after their teams played in front of 86,174 fans at Melbourne Cricket Ground on International Women’s Day.
As India made the final of the event for the first time, fans watched 1.78 billion viewing minutes of live match action on TV of that game alone. The figure is 59 times more than the final of the previous edition in 2018 between Australia and England, and comprised 35 per cent of the overall viewership for the tournament.
The live average audience for the final in India was 9.02 million, higher than all matches of the 2018 tournament played in the West Indies. This figure is 154 per cent higher than the second most viewed match in the competition – the tournament opener between Australia and India on 21 February. The overall viewing minutes across the whole event in India was 5.4 billion, almost three times more than the 2018 edition.
The digital streaming figures too were impressive in India, peaking at 3.1 million for concurrent users of Hotstar during the final.
In Australia, the average audience for the final was 1.2 million, making it the most watched women’s cricket match and the sixth-most watched cricket match ever on subscription television in Australian broadcast history.
ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney: “These quite outstanding broadcast and digital numbers demonstrate the power of women’s cricket to aggregate a huge global audience and engage fans. This undoubtedly consolidates our position as one of the leading women’s sports in the world and we want to build on the momentum from this event and create a long-term sustainable foundation for the game.
“It reinforces our belief that there is a significant opportunity around the women’s game and collectively we must promote it further so more fans can watch it, more kids are inspired by it and sponsors and broadcasters want to be a part of it.
“We have built on the record-breaking success of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 and continued our focus on deepening engagement with existing fans and bringing new fans to the game with relevant, engaging content that goes beyond match highlights. Cricket fans want competitive cricket with context and the world’s best players did not disappoint in Australia earlier this year.”
ICC expresses sadness at death of DLS method founder Tony Lewis
Sports Desk
ISLAMABAD (April 2, 2020):-The International Cricket Council (ICC) has expressed its sadness at the death of mathematician Tony Lewis, who co-developed the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern system of calculating target scores in rain-affected limited-overs matches.
Lewis, who passed away at the age of 78, had developed the original Duckworth-Lewis method jointly with Frank Duckworth, which was adopted by the ICC in 1999. After the retirements of Duckworth and Lewis, Steven Stern became the custodian of the method and his name was added to the system in 2014.
Frank Duckworth (left) and Tony Lewis co-developed the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern system of calculating target scores in rain-affected matches
Frank Duckworth (left) and Tony Lewis co-developed the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern system of calculating target scores in rain-affected matches
Geoff Allardice, ICC General Manager – Cricket: "Tony’s contribution to cricket is huge. The present day system of resetting targets in international cricket is based on the one developed by him and Frank more than two decades ago.
"His contribution to the game of cricket will be remembered for years to come and we send our condolences to his family and friends."
Lewis, a graduate in mathematics and statistics from Sheffield University, retired as a lecturer of Quantitative Research Methods from Oxford Brookes University. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2010.
Tokyo 2020: Dr. Narinder Dhruv Batra says
SB News
Lausanne, Switzerland: "On behalf of the International Hockey Federation (FIH), I would like to thank the International Olympic Committee, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, the Government of Japan and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government for having confirmed the new dates of next year’s Olympics so swiftly.
The international hockey community fully supports this decision. Athletes and coaches can now plan their preparations in full knowledge of the new schedule, which is very helpful. We look forward to a magnificent event which will unite the world in Tokyo next year!
In the meantime, I wish everyone to keep well and safe.”
ICC clears Devon Conway to play for New Zealand
BIPIN DANI
South Africa's loss while New Zealand's gain. That's how Glenn Pocknall, the Firebird team coach described.
The 28-year-old SA-born wicket-keeper batsman has been cleared by the ICC to play for New Zealand.
"He came to NZ for a new start and cricket wasn’t necessarily the main motivation. It was having a quality life. No family here just moved here with his partner", the coach Glenn Pocknall, speaking exclusively over telephone from Wellington, said.
Interestingly, Conway had a "miserable" First Class debut. In 2009, playing for Gauteng, he was out for a duck (against Easterns).
"Yeah, it came long way from that", the coach said.
"We receive 100s of players saying they coming every season and the first point we look at is there domestic record, if they even have one....When we heard Devon was coming and looked at his statistics from SA we thought someone was having us on.... His record was outstanding and had just come off a double Ton in one of his last innings".
"He didn’t walk into our team and it wasn’t till our keeper (Tom Blundell) got injured that he got a chance. You could see straight away he was a very good player. The pitches in NZ slightly different to those of SA so he received some great mentoring and coaching from Luke Woodcock (current Wellington Firebirds batting coach and formerly played with Devon here) about some subtle changes he needed to make".
"In a short space of time and some hard work he turned himself into an even better player and dominated First Class cricket for the last two seasons. His 327 * this season was against two BLACKCAP Test bowlers in Matt Henry and Todd Astle".
"He’s a very good badminton player too however have to curb his enthusiasm for that to save his arms and shoulders for batting out in the middle", the coach further added.
Air Chief condoles on demise of Azam Khan
Sports Reporter
ISLAMABAD (March 31, 2020):-Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan, Chief of the Air Staff, Pakistan Air Force has expressed his heartfelt condolences on the sad demise of legendary squash player Azam Khan who breathed his last in UK on Saturday.
The Air Chief, who is also President Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF), showered praise upon one of the greatest squash players of all times, who died at the age of 95 year. Describing the legend as an inspiration for the young squash players in the country, the Air Chief said that Azam Khan proved that hard work and focused approach would ensure success in fulfilling the desired objectives in one's life.
He further said that Azam Khan carried along the legacy of his elder brother Hashim Khan by winning four consecutive British Open crowns from 1959 to 1962. He added that his name has acted as a motivating force for the younger generations of Pakistan squash players to achieve greater heights.
PCB confirms receiving Umar Akmal’s response
SB News
LAHORE (March 31, 2020):-The Pakistan Cricket Board today confirmed it has received Umar Akmal’s response to the Notice of Charge, which was issued on 17 March for two violations of Article 2.4.4 of the PCB Anti-Corruption Code in unrelated incidents.
The PCB will now review and examine Umar Akmal’s response and provide further details on the next steps in due course. Until that stage, the PCB will not make any further comments on this matter.
Aleem Dar provides free meals to needy people
BIPIN DANI
Apparently Aleem Dar is the first international cricket umpire who has opened the doors of his own restaurant for the poor people in Pakistan.
ICC's Elite Panel umpire Dar has offered free meals to the jobless and poor people in Lahore.
Speaking over telephone from Lahore on Friday, he said, "my Restaurant (Dar's Delighto) is near to Shaukat Khanum Hospital in Lahore. I opened this restaurant 2 years back and from last one year we are serving free food to needy people".
Poor and needy patients and relatives coming to Imran Khan-built Shaukat Khanum Hospital are benefited with the food arrangements at Dar's restaurant.
"Within the next six months I am going to buy three Ambulances, which will also give free services to the poor people".
"And Insh-Allah (God willing) I will increase my charity work in future".
Incidentally, the 51-year-old umpire who has officiated in 386 international matches (132 Tests, 208 ODIs and 46 T-20Is) is also helping poor people in marriages.
"I am also running a cricket academy (Aleem Dar Cricket Academy) in Lahore, where the good talented poor boys are given free training and financial support to their families.
Interestingly, four impaired boys of his academy are the members of the Pakistan Deaf team.
On Friday, when it was heavily raining in Lahore, the restaurant had to call the police to make the people stand in a proper queue so as distance between the persons has a minimum distance of one meter.
Hero CPL to broadcast classic cricket encounters
Sports Desk
ISLAMABAD (March 27, 2020):-With no live sport currently available, the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) has partnered with cloud video production platform Grabyo to create a unique and innovative content experience for cricket fans to enjoy. From next week, CPL will be broadcasting classic matches from the last seven years of the tournament, but with a twist.
In an industry first, rather than airing the original commentary, CPL has enlisted its world-class broadcasting team, including Tom Moody, Danny Morrison, Ian Bishop, Daren Ganga and Alex Jordan to commentate live on the action. To make each match as realistic as possible, CPL will not give any of the match information to the commentary team before the game starts. Their reactions and comments will be as if they are watching the games live for the first time- providing unparalleled levels of authenticity.
The CPL digital team will also be covering these matches as if they are live, providing match clips, graphics and behind the scenes content to replicate the CPL experience. Opening the CPL vault has served as a reminder of the classic, high impact CPL games there has been. Now fans can re-live the best matches with an up to the minute twist, thanks to CPL’s brilliant commentary team.
The CPL has also featured some of the greatest T20 cricketers of all time, and fans will be able to enjoy some of their amazing performances as if they are watching them for the first time, with the commentators calling the game as if it was live.
These matches will be broadcast using Grabyo’s state of the art live streaming software, which will allow the commentators to broadcast remotely. The commentary team will be based in Australia, Trinidad and Barbados.
Tom Moody, CPL Director, International Cricket and commentator said: “Thinking of everyone around the world during this challenging time. I’m thrilled to be involved with CPL’s initiative to revisit some of the best matches since 2013. Some of the best players in the world in action showing their class and we’ll be calling it, without knowing what game we have in advance! I hope that the biggest party in sport brings some comfort and a smile.”
Pete Russell, CPL Chief Operating Officer, said: “The thoughts of everyone involved in CPL are with those who have had their lives impacted by this crisis and we have been spent a good deal of time thinking how we can provide sports fans with something different and exciting for them to enjoy as we get through this Pandemic. We all miss live sport, and we wanted this experience to be as immersive as possible. So we hope that cricket fans around the world enjoy this unique interactive experience with some of the best cricket commentators in the world and some of the best T20 cricket on the planet. I would also like to thank Grabyo who have helped make this happen. Their incredibly talented teams have highlighted how creativity and innovation will get us all through this challenging and worrying time.”
Gareth Capon, Grabyo CEO, added: “The time has come for sports federations to go the extra mile to engage with fans in this trying time. CPL is leading the way and showing everyone how to be truly fan-first. We are excited to play our part in this series and create unique experiences for cricket fans all over the world, delivering joy to those who need it now more than ever. We can’t wait to get started!”
PCB releases NOC policy for its players
By Abdul Jabbar Faisal
ISLAMABAD (March 27, 2020):-The Pakistan Cricket Board on Friday (today) released its No Objection Certificate (NOC) policy for centrally and domestically contracted players. The policy had been reviewed and approved by the Board of Governors during their 57th meeting, subject to minor changes.
According to media department of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), all centrally contracted players may seek clearance for up to a maximum of four leagues, including the HBL Pakistan Super League, says new policy.
Initial feedback and assessment of NOC requests will come through the International Cricket Operations department and national head coach/team management, who will carry out due diligence with respect to player workload and international commitments. As per NOC policies around the world, the Chief Executive of the Board will then be the final approving authority at the final stage of the process.
The domestic players contracted by the Cricket Associations will be required to directly approach their respective associations for any NOC approvals in the first instance. Input and feedback will then be sought from the cricket operations department, before moving to the last stage of the approval process.
For domestic players, who don’t feature in red-ball cricket but are white-ball regulars, it is has been made mandatory for them to commit to domestic 50-over and 20-over competitions in order to be eligible for NOCs.
As per the ICC regulations, both inactive and retired cricketers will require NOCs from the PCB for ICC approved events. However, the PCB will issue NOCs to players who have been retired for 24 months or more, unless there are compelling reasons which the PCB will have to provide in writing.
PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan said: “I think this is a flexible, balanced and comprehensive NOC policy which addresses as many of the likely scenarios that we will face.
“We have given primacy and importance to player workload, international and domestic commitments, but at the same time it was important that players are given the opportunities to make additional earnings and develop their skills around the world”.
“I am optimistic that moving forward, all the relevant stakeholders will have clarity and a better understanding of the process. To ensure that we maintain our relationships with cricket boards around the world, once granted, NOC’s will only be revoked if there are any injury concerns, or there are international or domestic playing obligations that need to be fulfilled.”
SPORTS NEWS - National 26 Mar, 2020
By Abdul Jabbar Faisal
ISLAMABAD (March 26, 2020):-The International Netball Bodies have postponed the all upcoming three International Netball Events owing to Corona virus outbreak in the World.
President, Pakistan Netball Federation (PNF), Mudassar Arain told to media persons that the International Netball Bodies had postponed three International Netball Events due to Corona virus epidemic in the World, including Asian Women’s Netball Championship, Asian Men’s Netball Championship and World Under-15 Girls’ Netball Championship. “The Asian Women Netball Championship-2020 was to be held at Korea from 19-26 June, which now will be played in December-2020 and Twelve countries will take part in the event including Malaysia, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Singapore, India, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Chinese Taipe, Pakistan and Brunie, “he divulged.
He further revealed that the Asian Men’s Netball Championship-2020 had also been postponed which was to be held at Singapore from 29th April to 5th May 2020. Now it would be in December -2020. “Teams from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Singapore, India, Thailand, Pakistan and Brunie will be fight for the top position. International Girls Under-15 Netball Championship-2020 has been cancelled which to be held at Melbroune, Australia from June 29, to July 5, 2020 and the date will be announced later, “he added.
Mudassar further said that PNF had already postponed all netball activities in the country due to Corona Virus situation till April 15, on the special instructions of government and Pakistan Sports Board.
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