While the 2015 World Cup is only 6 days away, Australian fans have been dealt a blow with no Australian TV broadcaster covering the first World Cup warm-up match between co-hosts Australia and defending champions India.
FOUR! What a start from Warner first ball! No TV coverage in Aus unfortunately so follow the match live here: http://t.co/x8iV1aWmQz #CWC15
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) February 8, 2015
The day-night fixture is being played in front of a reported sold out Adelaide Oval, but Australian fans will have to settle for live radio coverage only on ABC Grandstand (which is fantastic by the way) and live scores on cricket.com.au. Neither the Nine Network nor Fox Sports (both official World Cup broadcasters) are broadcasting the match.
Australia is taking on India in a #CWC15 warm-up match at the Adelaide Oval. Listen live here: http://t.co/jrYdbLq4zy #cricket — ABC Grandstand (@abcgrandstand) February 8, 2015
For those wondering if there are any TV broadcasters covering the match, there is in India, with the World Cup Cricket host broadcaster Star Sports, broadcasting the match live on TV and online. However it appears that the online stream is not available in Australia (presumably the stream is geo-blocked).
India are asked to field first by Australia in their warm-up game. Watch the Free stream here – http://t.co/hNvmqFJDhC #AUSvIND #CWC15
— STAR Sports (@StarSportsIndia) February 8, 2015
It is a great shame that there is no Australian TV coverage of this crucial warm-up match. Australian television coverage would have helped build anticipation to the opening matches next weekend, by ensuring cricket remained at the top of the sports news cycle. In recent weeks sports news in Australia has focussed on international sports events, such as the Asian Cup and Australian Open tennis.
The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup matches begin on February 14.
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Totally agree…would have loved to watch this match on some form of tv in Aus..
Agreed – it would have been good to see the Aus v UAE match today as well. They have 3 channels (9, Gem & Go). Surely we could live without 27 repeats of Big Bang Theory for one night.