MUMBAI: ESPN International has entered into a cricket distribution agreement with ESPN Star Sports (ESS) for International Cricket Council (ICC) events and the Champions League Twenty20 for the Caribbean market, ESPN Caribbean and Maritime Media vice president Bernard Stewart announced.

The development comes in the wake of ESPN exiting the Asian market after selling its stake to News Corp in the Asian sports broadcasting joint venture ESPN Star Sports. Post the clearance of the stake sale, ESPN will be present in Asia through its digital media products.

The ICC agreement is a four-year deal from 2012 to 2015 and covers several ICC events, including the global showpiece of the cricket calendar, the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

The distribution agreement covers terrestrial, cable, satellite and new media platform rights. ICC programming will be presented on two ESPN Caribbean television networks--ESPN Caribbean and ESPN 2 Caribbean-- and on ESPNPlay.com, the region?s recently launched broadband network for live sports programming.

The Champions League Twenty20 agreement extends ESPN?s current three-year deal by three more years covering 2013-2015. The agreement covers all of ESPN Caribbean?s media platforms including the two networks, ESPN Caribbean and ESPN 2 Caribbean, and ESPNPlay.com.

?We are delighted to again showcase talented cricketers from the West Indies who will play in the ICC World Twenty20 and the Champions League Twenty20 later this year, as well as the crown jewel of cricket ? the ICC Cricket World Cup ? in 2015,? Stewart said. ?Cricket is essential to our programming in the West Indies and has a dynamic following there. This long-term agreement reinforces our commitment to providing world-class cricket to Caribbean fans.?

ESPN Caribbean?s upcoming cricket coverage includes the ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup in Tony Ireland Stadium, Townsville, Australia from 10-25 August; the ICC World Twenty 20 in Sri Lanka from 18 September-7 October; and the Champions League Twenty20 in October.

The Champions League Twenty20 brings the best club teams from top cricket playing nations, including the West Indies, Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa, together in one of the major cricket competitions worldwide. Organisers have announced that Pakistan and other nations will be added this year.

The winner of the Caribbean Twenty20 ? to which ESPN Caribbean holds the rights through 2013 ? will represent the West Indies in the CLT20. Trinidad and Tobago, the 2011 representative, will return this year.

?We have succeeded in securing some very significant long-term broadcast partnerships for the ICC events and we are very pleased to be working with ESPN to showcase an exciting calendar of ICC cricket events in this cricket market,? said ESS SVP corporate development & cricket rights Anurag Dahiya.

MUMBAI: The Ultimate Fighting Championship has partnered Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to launch the first annual International Fight Week which will take from 3-7 July 2012.

International Fight Week is being positioned as being the ultimate week-long experience for UFC fans. The inaugural week-long celebration of the UFC will feature the largest ever gathering of fighters and unprecedented access to UFC stars and will cumulate with UFC 148: Silva vs Sonnen II.

The UFC and LVCVA have partnered to make the July fight event not just a Las Vegas tradition, but a signature sporting occasion which will draw fans from all over the globe to the fight capital of the world. This will become an annual tradition for the UFC in Las Vegas.

UFC president Dana White said, "For years the UFC has done a big Vegas show around the Fourth of July weekend and now we?ve made it a focal point in our calendar . For UFC 148, we?ve got fans coming in from all over the country, tons of people from Brazil and Canada and as far away as England, Japan and Australia to see this fight.

"Las Vegas is the UFC?s hometown. This is where our headquarters are this is where we are from and we?re proud to be contributing to the local economy. The first annual International Fight Week will be awesome, the fans are going to have a fight week experience better than anything they?ve ever had before, and each year we are going to build this thing to the point where every fan on the planet knows they have to come to Vegas for this July fight week at least once in their lives."

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority president, CEO Rossi Ralenkotter said, "The UFC has evolved into a world-wide brand, generating interest from all over the globe. Las Vegas and UFC is a partnership of two great brands and International Fight Week will attract visitors from all over the world. There?s no better destination for a special event of this magnitude than Las Vegas."

Properties in Las Vegas that will be hosting UFC themed events during International Fight Week, include the MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, the Palazzo, the Wynn, the Palms, the EA Sports Lounge at the Cosmopolitan, a Fremont Street experience at the D, Golden Nugget, Golden Gate and El Cortez.

MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has renewed the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) rights for seven years.

This will include the multi-platform rights to broadcast its domestic and international matches in England.

The deal, which runs from 2013 to 2019, incorporates rights for television, online, mobile and radio, covering India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh among others across Asia. The broadcast arrangement also includes territories in North Africa.

As a part of this agreement, ESS will broadcast more than 300 days of live International cricket action, including 47 Test Matches, 63 One Day Internationals and 15 Twenty20 games.

Key highlights of this new agreement include India?s next two tours to England in 2014 and 2018 as well as three Ashes series in 2013, 2015 and 2019.

Major Test playing nations will be competing in England, including New Zealand, Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa.

In addition, ESS will broadcast 60 days of ECB?s domestic cricket every year, including the Friends Life T20 competition, the CB40 tournament, the LV=County Championship, as well as England Lions, England Under 19s and England Women?s cricket. Specifically for the Indian subcontinent, the exciting cricket action will be available during prime time making it a very interesting proposition for fans and advertisers alike.

ESS MD Manu Sawhney said, "We are delighted to further extend our partnership with ECB with whom we have shared a very strong relationship over the past two decades."

ECB CEO David Collier said, "This new agreement demonstrates the enormous appetite for cricket worldwide and the global pulling power of a successful England team and a vibrant County game.

"In a challenging economic climate with all sports facing tough competition for funding streams, it will also provide an important source of additional revenue for funding the development of our game at all levels.

"TV audiences for cricket are expanding rapidly in Asia and the Middle-East and we look forward to working closely with ESS to give both our international and county teams the widest possible TV exposure over the next seven years."

ESS had earlier renewed its deal with Cricket Australia in December 2011. That was the first time that a broadcast deal with Cricket Australia gave ESS rights to showcase two India series. India is slated to play four Test matches and a tri-series with England as the third team in the 2014-2015 season. This tri-series, featuring India, Australia and England and scheduled right before the ICC World Cup in 2015 is already looked upon as the signature event of the year and is positioned as the ?Clash of the Titans?. India will visit Australia again for7 ODIs and2 Twenty20 matches in the year 2015-2016. More recently Star india had bagged the rights for india cricket. Those rights will be sub licensed to ESS gioving the broadcaster a dominant position in cricket.

ESS over the next 13 months, will have over 400 match days of cricket starting with the ongoing West Indies? tour of England to all the way to ICC Champions Trophy in England in June 2013.

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MUMBAI: Test cricket, which has been fast losing its popularity to the shorter version of the game, is going to experiment with the day and night format to attract prime time television audience.

In a significant development, the International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket Committee has agreed to maintain the impetus with regard to day and night Test cricket and recommended that should the competing countries in a bi-lateral series agree that they wish to try this out, this request should be accommodated.

The Committee also agreed that the trials at domestic level should continue.

Market research has recognised that the appeal of day and night Test cricket might be better suited to certain markets, particularly India, New Zealand and South Africa, and the trials revealed certain cricket balls retained their colour and performed better than others.

The ICC Cricket Committee had earlier received reports of the ongoing trials and considered the reports involving the development and feasibility of using different colour balls in multi-day formats in day and night conditions. They also considered a report from John Stephenson of the MCC on the experiences of their annual games in Abu Dhabi, reports from Australia, England and Pakistan as well as spectator feedback.

The encouraging change over the late years is that the value of Test cricket has fallen at a time when the level of competitiveness has intensified and matches have started yielding more results.

Statistics from David Kendix demonstrate that over-rates are at their highest in five years in Test cricket and that the average frequency of no-balls has dropped sharply. There is also a reduction in high scoring draws and that spin bowlers are being deployed more often in all forms of the game.

Kendix, who supplied these statistics to the Committee, also highlights that Test cricket is as competitive now as it has been for many years with five teams being separated by only eight rating points.

The committee, thus, feels that there is a need now, through the Targeted Assistance Performance Programme (TAPP) and the Future Tours Programme (FTP), to improve the competitiveness of some of the lesser performing countries.

Twenty20 strategy: With the popularity of this format of the game fast rising, the ICC Cricket Committee feels that it is wise to let the status quo prevail.

The ICC Cricket Committee supports the World Twenty20 being held every two years; the World Twenty20s should continue to be joint men?s and women?s events; and World Twenty20 should be 16 men?s team event from 2014 in order to encourage the development of the game.

The Committee does not think there is need to have an ICC World U19 Twenty20.

The Committee?s views are, thus, in line with those of the ICC Board and the Chief Executive Council?s which have already agreed that the ICC World Twenty20 would remain a joint men?s and women?s event and that the men?s teams should increase from 12 to 16 teams from 2014 onwards.

International cricket, being the lifeblood of the world game, needs the ICC to play a leadership role to protect and promote international cricket. Recognising this, the committee believes that the ICC and its member boards need to proactively ensure that the attraction of international cricket is primary and not only maintained but enhanced.

MUMBAI: The New Zealand series will mark the beginning of Star India?s partnership with BCCI after the former secured the media rights last month with a Rs 38.51 billion bid following a tight bidding process which involved rival Multi Screen Media (bid Rs 37 billion).

The BCCI has finalised the fixtures and venues for the first two series involving New Zealand and England. India will host three major international series from August 2012 to March 2013, involving ten Tests, five ODIs and four T20 Internationals.

The series between India and New Zealand will be played from 23 August-11 September, and feature two Tests and two T20 internationals. The first Test will be played at from 23 August at Hyderabad while Bangalore will host the second Test from 31 September.

The two T20 Internationals between the two teams will be played on 8 and 11 September at Vishakhapatnam and Chennai.

The India-England series, the broadcast rights of which are also with Star, will comprise four Tests, two T20 Internationals and five ODIs, from 15 November 2012 to 27 January 2013.

The Tests and T20s will be played in 15 November-22 December which will also mark the international debut of newly built MCA Subroto Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune, which will play host to the second T20 International.

The first Test will be played at Ahmedabad from 15 November while Mumbai will host the second Test starting 23 January. Kolkata and Nagpur will host the third and fourth Test from 5 and 7 December respectively.

The England team will fly home for Christmas, and return in the new year for a five-match ODI series to be played from 11-27 January. The series will feature the international debuts of as many as three venues, in the cities of Rajkot (new stadium), Ranchi and Dharamsala.

Following the India-New Zealand series, the two teams will fly to Sri Lanka to participate in the ICC World T20 2012. ESPN Star Sports has the telecast rights of the World T20.

The Airtel series between India and Australia will be played in February-March 2013, and feature four Tests. The match-schedule will be finalised soon.

MUMBAI: The ICC Board has recommended the name of David Richardson, the ICC General Manager ? Cricket, to succeed compatriot Haroon Lorgat as the ICC CEO to the ICC Annual Conference.

The ICC Nominations Committee met in Mumbai at the weekend to interview four ?outstanding candidates? for the chief executive?s role and on Thursday obtained the ICC Board?s support via teleconference for Richardson?s nomination.

Besides Richardson, those in the fray included England and Wales Cricket Board CEO David Collier and former Karnataka cricketer and head of adidas South East Asia Tarun Kunzru. The fourth candidate was from Australia going by the name Baker.

The ICC Annual Conference is to be held in Malaysia capital Kuala Lumpur on 28 June.

If endorsed, Richardson will become the fourth ICC CEO. His predecessors were David Richards (1993-2001), Malcolm Speed (2001-2008) and Haroon Lorgat, whose current four-year tenure ends on 30 June 2012.

Johannesburg-born Richardson, 52, has been the ICC General Manager ? Cricket for the last 10 years and has an outstanding CV having represented South Africa as a wicketkeeper in 42 Test matches and 122 One-Day Internationals.

On retiring from international cricket in 1998, Mr Richardson, a qualified lawyer, maintained close contact with the game as both a business director with Octagon SA and as a media commentator before becoming the ICC?s first General Manager in January 2002.

After hearing of his nomination, Richardson said: ?It is a great honour to be nominated to be chief executive of the ICC. I am delighted with this opportunity and thank the ICC Board for their approval. It has been a privilege to serve as ICC General Manager ? Cricket, and that work will continue until such time as the ICC Annual Conference ratifies my nomination. I am looking forward to working closely with all the membership and stakeholders in the game."