Dubai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday announced a partnership with social media giant Facebook for carrying out a range of digital content across four years.
The content will include match recaps, in-play key moments and other match and feature content.
"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," ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said in an official statement.
"Throughout the competitive bid process, we received tremendous interest from a range of platforms, all of whom recognise the phenomenal reach of cricket. In Facebook, we have a genuine partner who shares in our ambition to continue to grow and deepen engagement with cricket fans globally using its platforms," he added.
Facebook has also been made the exclusive digital content rights partner for ICC global events in the Indian sub-continent and will also carry post-match recaps throughout the rest of the world through to 2023.
Earlier this year, the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup became an unprecedented success as it netted around 4.6 billion video views across ICC's digital and social media platforms.
"We are excited to partner with the ICC to bring the most exciting moments in cricket to Facebook Watch and to chart the next stage of technology-led transformation in cricket. With Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, the ICC has an exceptional opportunity to leverage our family of apps to serve current sports fans as well as bring in an entirely new generation of fans," Ajit Mohan, VP and Managing Director Facebook India said.
"With this partnership, we will be able to serve these fans with the kind of premium content that can ignite new conversations, new connections and new followership. The future of AR and VR is being charted by Facebook and we are excited about the possibility of bringing the best of our innovations to fans around the world," he added.
The package includes major global events of ICC such as Women's T20 World Cup 2020, Men's T20 World Cup 2020, Women's Cricket World Cup 2021, Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 among others.
