Negotiations for the rights to broadcast cricket in Australia later in the decade will need to factor in another international tournament on home soil after Australia and New Zealand were selected as host nations for the 2028 T20 World Cup.
Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket welcomed the announcement overnight from the International Cricket Council, saying it will provide a ‘perfect stepping stone’ to having cricket included in the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be hosting the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in 2028 with New Zealand. We’ve seen from this year’s tournament that players and fans across the globe love this format of the game, and it is incredibly exciting to be partnering with New Zealand Cricket again after the success of the ICC 2015 Cricket World Cup,” Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley said. “World Cups have the ability to bring communities together and inspire our next generation of fans and players, exactly as we saw for the ICC Women’s 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia.”
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With the quickfire razzmatazz of T20 cricket pulling in a new, younger audience, news that the World Cup will again be held in Australia will also be welcomed by sponsors and broadcasters.
But who will have the cricket rights come 2028 is anyone’s guess.
Cricket Australia is currently locked in a bitter legal dispute with its current broadcast partner Seven which theoretically holds the contract until the 2023/24 season.
Federal Court action between the parties began in December, 2020, after the network voiced its frustration around the COVID-forced re-scheduling of the 2020/21 test series between Australia and India.
Seven claimed the summer cricket schedule was unfairly influenced by the powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India (BBCI), rather than solely shaped by the pandemic’s effect on live sports. Seven said it gave the BCCI and Foxtel an advantage, and is seeking financial compensation for Test Match and Big Bash League (BBL) “quality failures” by Cricket Australia.
The original summer schedule was changed, pushing a three-match one day international series to a late November start, followed by the Twenty20 series.