Dubai: Gulf News has entered into a partnership with Dubai-based Channel 2 Group to bring live commentary and expert comments of ICC Champions Trophy from legendary cricketers on this website.
Starting from the opening match between hosts England and Bangladesh on Thursday, a visitor to the website will just have to click on the relevant tile to listen to live commentary by the radio hosts along with an illustrious list of guest experts like Sunil Gavaskar, Clive Lloyd, Farokh Engineer, Graeme Smith, David Lloyd, Derek Pringle, Michael Atherton, Rameez Raja and Alan Wilkins.
Each match is likely to figure at least two panellists, who will be interacting with the hosts at certain points of the match.
Speaking to Gulf News, Ajay Sethi, Chairman of the Channel 2 Group, said: “Channel 2 Group have the exclusive global audio rights from International Cricket Council (ICC) till 2023 World Cup apart from the rights for digital video clips to territories like Africa, UK, Asean, Australia, Caribbean and South America. We are delighted to enter into a partnership with Gulf News to reach out to more fans in the region.”
For the Champions Trophy, Channel 2 Group will work with regional partners Radio4network to ensure that the commentary can be heard in other Indian languages. English and commentary and expert comments will be available on 89.1FM channel and in Malayalam on Gold FM.
“We have a strategic partnership with Ajman Independent Studios. During this Champions Trophy, plans are being made for UAE fans to call and talk to legends like Kapil Dev, Gavaskar and Lloyd on various moments of the matches,” added Sethi.
“In today’s age, mobile phone has become the camera and radio for everyone and even television as matches can be watched live on phone. With matches also being watched on watches, we have acquired video digital rights in certain region for video clips. At a time when people have no time to watch a full match, the short clips becomes very handy. Highlights package after the game will be available on OTT (Over The Top) platform.
“The reach of the radio is huge as our world feed reaches out to 1.5 billion people. The new age digitalisation of audio content is very exciting and we aim to play a strong part in providing high-definition audio production and partnerships with digital media outlets for expanding the live sport audio reach to every hand-held device,” Sethi added.
