ICC announces partnership with Facebook

The International Cricket Council announced a four-year collaboration with Facebook which makes make the social media giant an exclusive digital content rights partner for ICC’s global events. Facebook will cover ICC events held in the Indian sub-continent and also the post-match recaps throughout the rest of the world through to 2023.

The 50-over World Cup held in England and Wales this year brought with it an unprecedented digital success that saw it become the world’s most-watched sports on digital and social media platforms.

The World Cup saw numbers on Twitter and Instagram that were record-breaking. As much as three million views were recorded on the social media sites to go with 2.3 billion minutes of tournament content on YouTube.

Facebook itself recorded 1.2 billion minutes of content watched. The India- Pakistan match at Old Trafford was the most tweeted match with 2.9 million tweets and made it the most tweeted one-day match ever.

ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said,

“We are delighted to welcome Facebook to the global cricket family for this multi-year, multi-market partnership which is a first for our sport. The combination of one of the world’s most-watched sports with one of the world’s largest platforms is exciting for the future of our game…..The record-breaking growth in digital consumption at this summer’s ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup demonstrated the continued power of cricket to connect and engage more deeply with diverse audiences around the world."

According to the press release by the ICC, the package includes the following events across the 2019-2023 cycle:

ICC Major Global Events

ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020

ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021

ICC World Test Championship Final 2021

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021

ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2022

ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023

ICC World Test Championship Final 2023

ICC Men’s Qualifying Events:

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier 2019

ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2022

Other ICC Events:

ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2020

ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2022