Nine in mix as TV talks looming

THE plot is thickening for the future of free-to-air cricket broadcasting in Australia with Channel 9 to show selected games in the next two men’s World Cups.

Fox Cricket will show all matches for this year’s T20 World Cup in Australia and next year’s ODI World Cup in India, with Nine announcing it will display Australian games and finals in both tournaments in the continuation of a longtime World Cup sharing arrangement between the two networks.

Fox also has exclusive rights to the women’s ODI World Cup in New Zealand in March, which will follow the recordbreaking Ashes ratings in the home summer.

Men’s T20 world champion Australia will start its title defence on October 22 at the SCG with a rematch of last year’s final against New Zealand.

Nine held the free-to-air broadcasting rights for cricket in Australia for four decades before Fox Sports and Channel 7 signed a $1.182bn deal with Cricket Australia in 2018.

That deal is just about to complete its fourth year of a six-year duration and negotiations for the next broadcast rights package will soon take a sharper focus with CA certain

to try to spice up the Big Bash before the rights are sold again.

Seven has had a tempestuous relationship with cricket and launched court action against Cricket Australia in 2020, threatening to terminate its contract.

It has been widely speculated Channel 7 would not seek another deal with CA and it has twice attempted to on-sell the rights to the Big Bash to Channel 10.

Nine has focused its summer attention on tennis and is currently broadcasting the Australian Open.

Former Nine boss Hugh Marks said during the height of the Seven-CA dispute Nine would be interesting in regaining the rights “in the right circumstances’’, with Nine sources saying a possible option would be screening Test matches only with the season to finish just before the Australian Open.

Former Nine boss Hugh Marks.