Feb 5 (Reuters) – Cricket West Indies (CWI) on Friday signed a five-year deal with broadcaster BT Sport for exclusive live coverage in the United Kingdom of all the Caribbean team’s international home matches, including the test series against England next year.

The 2022 test series between England and West Indies will be the first time the teams will play the Richards-Botham Trophy.

“… I’m delighted to announce one of our largest ever broadcast rights agreements in the form of this unprecedented partnership with BT Sport,” CWI President Ricky Skerritt said in a statement https://www.windiescricket.com/news/cwi-sign-major-uk-broadcast-agreement-bt-sport-all-west-indies-matches-caribbean.

“Our tour to England last year helped to remind us how strong the West Indies brand continues to be in the UK, and we thank BT Sport for so highly valuing West Indies cricket by committing their broadcast support.”

Apart from England’s tour, BT Sport will also broadcast West Indies home matches across all formats against Sri Lanka this year. That will be followed by the visits to the Caribbean by South Africa, Australia and Pakistan in June, July and August.

“West Indies’ home series are the second-most watched cricket in the UK after England’s home matches,” CWI CEO Johnny Grave said.

“And this agreement ensures that the best action from the Caribbean will be broadcast in an extremely important sports and tourism market for the region.”

England are currently touring India with the first test having begun on Friday, with Channel 4 showing the four-match test series in its entirety.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru Editing by Toby Davis)

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