It might only be Spring but Australia’s summer of cricket has kicked into gear with the men’s T20 World Cup which will kick off this weekend with Australia hosting 16 teams in the tournament which begins on Sunday, October 16 at 3:00 pm. Every game will be live and ad-break-free during play on Fox Sports.
This will commence a big set of fixtures for the men’s national teams that will see countries such as England, the West Indies, and South Africa arrive for series across multiple formats.
This follows last year’s Fox Cricket broadcast, which was Foxtel’s most successful ever, with viewership growing 10% year-on-year.
Ahead of Fox Sports‘ World Cup coverage, Mediaweek spoke with Steve Crawley, the executive director of Fox Sports, about what fans can expect from Fox Sport’s coverage this year.
Crawley said that with five countries coming for international matches, plus a men’s and women’s world cup, it could be a historic schedule of cricket.
“Every year, they say this will be the biggest ever. Quantity-wise, it will be the biggest ever. Quality-wise, you could argue that as well. I hope the play is as good as everyone feels it will be at the moment.”
When asked about new innovations in this year’s coverage, Crawley said the key is not to announce something until it’s been tested properly, but said to keep an eye out for one thing in particular.
“I say every year, you don’t brag about innovations until you know that they work. We are working on bat-tracking that is all done through waves. It can only be done on big grounds, but we’re working on that. Keep an eye out for bat tracking coverage.”
With Kayo Sports growing more and more alongside Fox Sports, Crawley said that they are mostly the same product, but Kayo will be offering a few different variations this year in its cricket coverage.
“We are aware of the young people that are watching Kayo and the new people that are coming in through Kayo. The fact of the matter is, it’s the same production team as Fox Sports which is making content for Kayo. There are some add-ons such as the Kayo Minis and there are a lot of ways that Kayo cut things up differently as well. They’ll also be adding some international commentary this year, in different languages. We have got the Fox Cricket+ second channel that Kayo will take as well. If you wake up every morning and try and see the difference between Fox Sports and Kayo, you’re gonna get a headache for nothing.”
Replacing two greats
Sadly, this will be the first summer of cricket without two Fox Sports regulars, Shane Warne and Andrew Symonds, When asked how you replace two titans like them, Crawley said the simple answer is that you don’t.
“I don’t know how you do it. I guess what you don’t do is set out to replace those guys because they’re not replaceable. We just treat them with respect and try a little bit harder. Everyone puts in a little bit more.
“You stick some old producers up in the box with the young commentators and you work it out. Every day, you’re trying to be better than you were yesterday. And every day, you’re trying to give your audience more insight. That’s our job.”
The women’s commentary team
With the woman’s game continuing to grow, Crawley said that has put even more importance on the air product, which he said is only getting better with Fox Sport’s world-class commentary team.
“We’ve got commentary to match with Mel Jones, Kath Loughnan, Megan Barnard, Alyssa Healy and Ellyse Perry. They’re world-class commentators. Alyssa Healy reminds me so much of her uncle who I’ve worked with over the years, Ian Healy, and she might be better. Every time I see her, I think she might be better. Which would be bloody good, because he also is a great commentator.”