ESPN targets American cricket fans

Cricket fans in the United States have a reason to rejoice: the sports network ESPN is devoting a significant portion of its stateside broadcast to the game.
From last Tuesday, the cable channel began showing the T20 World Cup live for viewers in the United States for the first time since the tournament started in 2003. Before this, cricket fans in the country had to shell out $30 to $100 for a match or an entire tournament to catch them via the Internet or through pay-per-view.

For cricket followers in the United States, where the sport isn’t as universal as it is in India, this news couldn’t have come fast enough. "When I first moved to the U.S. in the ’90s, watching cricket was difficult because you needed to have a satellite dish or turn to pay-per-view, which only showed finals matches," said Anand Atre, 37, who lives in New York and works in financial services. "Me and all my friends who love cricket always hoped that the game would become more accessible, and now it finally has."
ESPN has promised cricket fans more than 1,500 hours of cricket programming from 2012 to 2015, the fruits of an exclusive deal signed with the global rights holder, ESPN Star Sports, in March 2011 to air the Champions League Twenty20 and International Cricket Council events live in the United States.
ESPN has been committed to cricket for some time. The network bought Cricinfo.com in 2007, which is now the world’s most popular cricket site with more than 11.9 million unique visitors per month. ESPN had also bought the U.S. rights to show cricket matches in the past like the 2010 Asia Cup, the Caribbean Regional Twenty20 Tournament and Bangladesh home matches against other national teams.
Cricket’s appeal in the United States is strong and growing, said Damon Phillips, vice president of ESPN3, the channel that will show all this cricket stateside. Cricinfo.com has more than one million unique visitors a month in the United States, he said, and the United States audience has grown 37 percent every year since the network acquired the site in 2007.
When cricket matches are aired, the average viewing time is close to 90 minutes because the matches are longer than typical sporting events.
"Cricket is one of the top sports in the world, and we want to introduce American audiences to it on a wider scale," said Mr. Phillips. "Plus, there is already a very passionate fan base in the country, and we want to drop the barriers to access and the expense that these fans had to deal with for years now."
The new T20 format, where matches last just three hours, will make the game more appealing, said Mr. Phillips. In the past, matches could go on all day for the one-day internationals, or O.D.I., or five days for test matches.
He said the shorter matches will also be attractive for advertisers, who are guaranteed that viewers will tune in for a set amount of time.
As for Mr. Atre, his plans for the next few days are fixed, thanks to ESPN’s news. "I’ll be watching the T20 India matches, of course," he said. "And right on cable TV. Finally."