Cricket Ireland ties up with Pitch International for five-year broadcast deal

Cricket Ireland, on Thursday (April 28), signed a five-year broadcast deal with Pitch International, handing them the exclusive rights to air Ireland men's and women's international matches to be played at home for the agreed period.

The agreement covers Ireland's home matches, scheduled between 2022-26 and gives Pitch International a wider horizon as the broadcaster is all set to add the women internationals till the end of next Future Tours Programme (FTP) in its portfolio. 

With Ireland men's team set to host India and New Zealand during the 2022 summer, the viewership numbers are expected to skyrocket. Last time when India toured Ireland, the two-match T20I series recorded a global broadcast reach of 429 million viewers. 

Cricket Ireland Chief Executive Warren Deutrom commented on the deal and hoped that it would only help the sport prosper in the country. 

"As Irish cricket grows in stature on the world stage, broadcast and digital rights are becoming a key income stream to support Cricket Ireland and its work in growing and improving the sustainability of our sport. Having worked closely with Pitch International as our agent in the broadcast market for so many years, we are delighted to formally welcome them as our official global broadcast partner. 

“From experience, we are confident that Pitch provides the necessary expertise and reach into the global broadcast and digital marketplace," Deutrom said as quoted in a press release issued by Cricket Ireland.

"Not only will this agreement help grow the profile of our sport internationally, but it will also help to sustain the revenue for Cricket Ireland to invest back into the sport – our facilities, our high performance programmes, our Provincial Unions and programmes at club and grassroots levels," he added.

Deutrom also shared his delight on live streaming the women's matches. The deal is first of its kind as Ireland women's cricket had finally found a home.

"As a new aspect of our latest broadcast deal, we will offer women’s cricket content to the market for the first time. Almost 750,000 views of our women’s international livestreams in 2021 has demonstrated the interest in Irish women’s cricket, and this will be set to grow significantly further with the senior squad’s entry into the ICC Women’s Championship.

"As we don’t want to just be a major nation in world cricket, but a major sport in Ireland, we have ensured the new broadcast deal carves out our ability to offer attractive opportunities for with domestic broadcast partners in Ireland – and we will explore these," the CEO concluded.

The press release also included the statement of Guy Le Grew, Chief Revenue Officer at Pitch International, who said, "We are delighted to extend our long-term partnership with Cricket Ireland and continue to help grow the game of cricket in Ireland. As the landscape of world cricket continues to evolve, our focus is on driving reach and revenue for Irish cricket and to enhance the profile of Ireland’s international sides both at home and abroad.

"Cricket Ireland have consistently secured high quality opposition for both their men’s and women’s teams, which in turn provides us all with exciting opportunities in broadcast markets around the world. 

“Through Pitch’s wider portfolio of international cricket rights, which also includes the England and Wales Cricket Board, New Zealand Cricket, Cricket West Indies, Netherlands Cricket and Cricket Scotland, our unrivalled expertise and network uniquely positions us to deliver market-leading results. We look forward to continuing to work with Cricket Ireland to take the sport forward," he stated.