West Indies Cricket CEO admits match timings in ICC T20 World Cup 2024 designed to cater Indian audience

WICB CEO Johnny Grave spoke on the bizarre match timings of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024.

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) CEO Johnny Grave has made a clear admission that the match timings of 10.30 AM (local time) in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2024 have been kept specifically keeping in mind the Indian viewers. Grave pointed out that the “majority of the revenue” for the ICC events comes from Indian audiences.

The ICC T20 World Cup 2024, being jointly hosted by the USA and West Indies, has sent fans and broadcasters in some misbalance in daily life with the timings of the games.

On most days of the group round and Super 8 round, there are two matches, but the games are separated by 10 hours, more or less. Every day there is a game scheduled for 10.30 AM local time, which is 8 PM IST, which is the prime time for Indian audiences. Then the next game is 10 hours later, which is night time locally and it will be early morning in India.

We have half the matches early for Star Sports: Johnny Grave

All of India’s matches, along with two out of three knockouts including the final, are scheduled for the morning, which is 8 PM IST; the final will start at 7.30 PM IST.

Although it is not a great advertisement for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 to host matches this early and it wouldn’t bring much crowd, the ICC and the hosting boards had to allot these timings to cater the Indian viewers.

Speaking in an interview with The Indian Express, Johnny Grave said the matches in the early morning in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 are kept because it is the prime time to serve the Indian fans.

Grave said, “I think everyone accepts that the vast majority of revenues for all ICC events comes from one market. Therefore it is really important that we find a balance between starting matches at prime time in India and for home fans. We have half the matches early for Star Sports and then we have gone as late as possible so they will start early in the morning in India, so they should still get a decent viewership.“

He added, “We as hosts can focus on the local fans attending the evening games and the 10:30 morning games will allow us to get school kids to watch some World Cup cricket for free.”

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