ICC World Twenty20 to be broadcast in 14 European languages

If you've ever wondered how to say "howzat?" in Polish or "free hit" in German, you could find out over the course of the next few weeks as the Eurosport channel will be broadcasting the upcoming ICC World Twenty20 from the West Indies in 14 languages across the length and breadth of the continent.

The broadcaster, which is an official licensee of ICC's broadcast partner ESPN STAR Sports and one of Europe's leading sports entertainment groups, has confirmed it will broadcast 19 matches from the event live on Eurosport 2, with the remaining 11 fixtures featuring live on Eurosport Player or as a delayed broadcast on Eurosport 2.

Along with the other licensees, this exciting development means that the ICC World Twenty20 2010 will be accessible to 58 territories across the continent of Europe. In addition, the full list of languages that Eurosport plans to broadcast are Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian and Turkish.

This is in addition to the global reach of the tournament through ESS's various licensees in more than 200 territories around the world.

Through Eurosport, ESS is also launching its exciting "What is Cricket?" educational campaign in order to continue building upon the event's growing popularity in Europe.

This ESS campaign aims to build on last year's efforts to bring Twenty20 International cricket closer to fans in Europe with five-minute promotional clips on Eurosport that introduce key elements of the sport and show new fans and viewers what makes the ICC World Twenty20 so exciting to watch.

As a flavour of what you can expect on your TV screens over the next few weeks, you can watch clips of Eurosport's multi-lingual coverage of the ICC World Twenty20 2009 in England on the event website www.iccevents.yahoo.com.

ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said: "This is another example of how the ICC and our partners are bringing the great sport of cricket to the world and promoting it beyond its traditional boundaries. It is great news for cricket and for the sports-lovers of Europe.

"This is the second time Eurosport has broadcast an ICC event, the first being the ICC World Twenty20 2009 in England. After that tournament we received correspondence from cricket novices in places like Sweden and Italy wondering how they could find out more about the game and if there were any clubs in their neighbourhoods they could join," said Mr Lorgat.

"Being able to put these new cricket-lovers in touch with our Members across Europe was particularly satisfying and we hope this year's event in the West Indies will inspire yet more people to pick up the game."

The "What is Cricket?" campaign on Eurosport will take the form of regular on-air features explaining the fundamentals of the game to viewers who may not have seen much cricket in the past.

ESS managing director Manu Sawhney said: "We're very pleased to continue our partnership with Eurosport Group to showcase the ICC World Twenty20 event across continental Europe.

"This event enjoys a strong following across the region and we're committed to build on that popularity further with the 'What is Cricket?' campaign together with the ICC and Eurosport Group," said Mr Sawhney.

"This unique educational campaign builds on the ICC World Twenty20's growing appeal after last year's efforts to localize the event in 14 languages, and will go a long way in taking the game to new heights in the continent and bringing in new audiences for the future."

Laurent-Eric Le Lay, chairman and CEO of Eurosport Group added: "We're delighted with the partnership between ESS and the ICC. We're looking forward to delivering the ICC World Twenty20 2010 in the best way possible to our viewers in Europe so they can enjoy the event in all its glory.

"This is one of the year's biggest global sporting events and we're confident that this new educational campaign combined with broadcasting the event in more languages will raise the bar in terms of reaching more fans."

The 17-day tournament will feature 12 teams with all the top international players in the world taking part and with tickets for the big event fast disappearing, fans who are unable to support their teams at the grounds will be afforded the best possible coverage courtesy of ESS.

The event will also feature eight women's teams, which will play their group-stage matches in St Kitts. The semi-finals and final will run as double-headers with the men's version in St Lucia and Barbados in front of ESS cameras, giving enormous exposure to the women's game around the world.