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The batter will undergo surgery in Adelaide on Tuesday after the injury during training

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Jan-2022Australia have suffered a huge blow ahead of the Ashes with Beth Mooney suffering a fractured jaw during training on Monday and she will undergo surgery.A timelime for Mooney’s return has yet to be determined but there remains hope that she will still be able to feature later in the multi-format series. However, with the condensed nature of the matches it may yet be the focus shifts to recovering in time to leave for the ODI World Cup in New Zealand next month.The incident occurred when she was getting throwdowns from head coach Matthew Mott and was struck by a short delivery.Mooney would have been a lynchpin of Australia’s top order across the three formats. Earlier this season she played one of the finest ODI innings with an unbeaten 125 against India in Mackay.Related

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“Unfortunately I played a pivotal role,” Mott said. “Throwing balls to Beth, she was batting incredibly well, and as can happen just a rogue ball came up and put her in a pretty tough position. She tried to get out of the way and unfortunately copped it on the side of the chin.”The good news is that our doctors are pretty positive that the way jaw surgeries are working these days the comeback time is a bit shorter. We are looking for her to play, Beth certainly wants to play, but we’ll have to be smart and listen to the surgeons. She’s an incredibly tough character. The ball hit her quite hard and her reaction was very stoic.”You never want to get one of those but on the eve of an Ashes is probably the worst time. We’ll get through that. She has a lot of great supporters here.”Her absence means there will need to be a reshuffle of the batting order at least for the T20I series with a new opening partner alongside Alyssa Healy. One option would be to promote Rachael Haynes although Australia like having her security in the middle order. Mott said the Australia vs Australia A matches on Tuesday were a chance to assess options and for players to stake a claim with uncapped Georgia Redmayne, who was in the squad against India, another in the mix.Australia’s preparations have also been hit by Covid-19. Ellyse Perry will miss the intrasquad warm-ups in Adelaide on Tuesday having been involved in what was termed a “scare” although is expected to link up with the team later in the day and be available for the T20Is which start on Thursday.Australia A players Molly Strano and Katie Mack will also miss the warm-up matches after testing positive to Covid-19 and will not travel to Adelaide. Mack will remain at home in Canberra ahead of the Australia A 50-matches against England A, while Strano will travel direct to Canberra once she completes her period of isolation at home in Hobart.”Think we’ve moved past trying to avoid Covid completely and there’s a realisation that it may infiltrate our group,” Mott said. “Where we’ve tried to be really smart is to keep as separated as we can for as long as we can so if someone does go down that we can isolate that really quickly and not take the whole group down. There’s probably more to come, but watching the Big Bash and the way teams have been able to move and get on with it is something we really need to do for this series.”South Australia and Melbourne Renegades allrounder Courtney Webb has been called into the Australia A squad as cover for Strano and Mack.

Umpiring great retired in 1996 after officiating in 66 Test matches

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Sep-2025Harold “Dickie” Bird, one of the most beloved umpires in cricket’s history, has died at the age of 92.Bird, who officiated in 66 Tests and 69 ODIs, including three World Cup finals, was synonymous with his home county Yorkshire, for who he began his career as a top-order batter in 1956, and later went on to serve as Yorkshire president in 2014.He averaged 20.71 in 93 first-class matches, making two centuries including a best of 181 not out against Glamorgan in 1959. But when, after moving to Leicestershire in 1960, his career was cut short by injury four years later, his switch to umpiring would set him on the path to becoming a household name.Bird’s idiosyncrasies would become part of his appeal, including his famously anxious attitude to timekeeping. Having made his umpiring debut in May 1970, he travelled to London for his second match – Surrey versus Yorkshire at The Oval – arrived at 6am for an 11am start, and was caught by a policeman attempting to scale the wall of the still-locked ground.As an umpire, he was famously reluctant to raise his finger for lbw appeals – several of his decisions would have been quickly over-turned in the age of DRS. In mitigation, he was at least consistent in offering the benefit of the doubt to batters … with one possible exception. On the morning of his final Test, England versus India at Lord’s, he arrived in the middle with tears in his eyes after a guard of honour from the players. And duly gave Mike Atherton out lbw in the first over of the match.Other memorable moments included his decision, during the West Indies Test at Old Trafford in 1995, to call a halt to play for an excess of sunlight, which had been reflecting off a greenhouse behind the bowler’s arm. In that same fixture, as related by Atherton in his autobiography, Bird dropped the pocket-ful of marbles that he used to count the deliveries in an over.”Play was halted momentarily while Dickie scrambled around on his hands and knees looking for his counters,” Atherton wrote. “‘I’ve lost me marbles! I’ve lost me marbles! He cried. Most of us thought he had lost his marbles a long time ago.”He was frequently the victim of practical jokes – particularly at the hands of Ian Botham and Allan Lamb. On one occasion, Lamb arrived at the middle with his 1980s brick-style mobile phone still in his pocket. Bird duly stashed it in his coat, whereupon Botham rang the device from the dressing-room, telling a startled Bird to pass on a message for his team-mate to get a move on.Bird himself had believed his likeliest route to sporting success was football, although as he related in his autobiography, a cartilage operation on his knee at the age of 15 put paid to that ambition. Instead, he became a fixture in Barnsley’s 1st XI cricket team, where his team-mates included Michael Parkinson – who would later become a world-renowned chat-show host – and later, Geoffrey Boycott.”I have known Dickie nearly 70 years as a friend,” Boycott wrote in his tribute to Bird. “When I was 15 I was taken to Barnsley Cricket Club by my Uncle Algy. I was in awe of him because every week Dickie was the star batsman.”Boycott added that Bird was a “very good technical batsman” but added that “nerves got the better of him” during his Yorkshire career. As an umpire, however, he described him as “absolutely brilliant”.”Players all over the world respected and admired him for his firmness, fairness, and he did it with a sense of humour. He was loved by so many and became a legend.”In 2009, Bird was honoured with a bronze statue on Barnsley’s Church Lane, set in his familiar umpiring pose with one finger raised. The council was soon obliged to place it on a higher plinth than had been intended, due to the public’s temptation to hang objects on said finger.He was appointed an MBE in 1986 and an OBE in 2012 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to cricket, having stood in his last first-class match in 1998, Yorkshire versus Warwickshire at Headingley.In a statement, Yorkshire confirmed that he had died peacefully at home”He leaves behind a legacy of sportsmanship, humility, and joy — and a legion of admirers across generations,” Yorkshire added.”The thoughts of everyone at the Yorkshire County Cricket Club are with Dickie’s family and friends during this time. He will be truly missed by all at the Club having spent an incredible amount of time in support of everyone here and will be remembered as one the greatest characters in Yorkshire’s history.”

The West Indies captain has been spectacular in the T20 series and has given her side the chance of a famous series win

AAP and ESPNcricinfo staff04-Oct-2023Hayley Matthews expects Australia’s bowlers to change their plans – and fields – but the West Indies skipper reckons she’s in good enough form to counter them as a historic series victory beckons.Thursday’s third T20I in Brisbane will centre on how the hosts handle in-form opener Matthews, who clubbed 132 off 64 balls in a record run chase to level the series on Monday night.She also made 99 not out in a game-one loss and has won player of the match in an incredible seven straight games.Related

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Australia captain Alyssa Healy persevered with fielders inside the ring on the offside on Monday, but her bowlers were unable to keep to the straighter line required on the tiny North Sydney Oval. Matthews obliged, flaying 11 fours and three sixes between backward point and cover.”A job of a captain is hard,” Matthews said when asked what she expects on Thursday night at Allan Border Field. “I’m pretty sure Alyssa would have had conversations with her bowlers, pretty sure from being captain myself the plan was to bowl straighter.”But I know how tough it can be as a captain when bowlers don’t hit where they need to. I’m pretty sure they’re going to go back and look pretty hard at the footage and at what happened and definitely have some different game plans.”The bigger square boundaries will add another element of intrigue to the contest as West Indies seek their first series win over the champion side.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“I’ve been striking them really well no matter what part of the ground I’ve been trying to access,” Matthew said. “Have it be that a different area of the field opens up, I [am confident] I can access right around, 360 [degrees].”Monday’s loss marked Australia’s third defeat in their last four T20s, having previously enjoyed a 12-match winning streak before being shocked twice by England in this year’s Ashes.Matthews said increased investment from rival nations in their women’s programs was starting to reap rewards. Sri Lanka recently beat England in a T20 series while Pakistan overcame South Africa.”That’s what is going to close the gap,” she said. “Australia just got way ahead of the game because their board made a big, early investment and we saw them go from strength to strength.”We’re going to see that gap closing. It’s going to take some time for other teams to catch up but it’s good we’re seeing results thrown up around the world.”For us, we didn’t want to play with any fear at all, even before we won a game. We know the quality they have; we try not to be afraid of that and, like I keep saying, be up for the challenge.”Australia have not lost a T20I series at home since facing England in 2017-18. The sides will also contest a three-match 50-over series, beginning in Brisbane on Sunday.

Western Australia veteran calls time after 22 years of Shield cricket and 38 Tests for Australia

Tristan Lavalette10-Mar-2023Shaun Marsh has retired from first-class cricket after 22 years of service for Western Australia at Sheffield Shield level, and 38 Test matches for Australia.Marsh made his first-class debut at the age of 17 for WA in 2001, and achieved a career-long ambition to win a Sheffield Shield title last season where he captained in the final in the absence of his brother Mitchell Marsh.At 39, Marsh decided to play another season in 2022-23, but he has been plagued by injury and has only managed one Shield game this summer.Having just returned to Perth club cricket after a fractured finger, Marsh’s retirement is effective immediately, meaning he won’t be part of WA’s bid to defend their title. They play Victoria at the WACA next week before hosting the final starting on March 23.”This year in particular has been really hard,” Marsh told reporters. “It wasn’t the way I planned it after winning the Shield final last year.”I had great expectations of myself to win another Shield but through injuries it hasn’t worked out how I wanted it to.”Marsh finishes as WA’s third-highest run scorer in the Shield, tallying 8347 runs including 20 centuries. His 122 matches is the second-most in WA’s history behind former captain Tom Moody.But at a training session on Tuesday, he realised his indefatigable first-class career was over.”I batted for about 20 minutes and the quicks came over…I said to V [WA coach Adam Voges] that I’m done and want to do my weights [session],” Marsh said. “I probably did half my weights [session]. I walked out and thought, ‘that’s not me’. Over the last 24 hours it hit home that my time is done.”It’s been an amazing journey, never in my wildest dreams did I think that I’d be here for 22 years and that’s something that I’m very proud of.”Father and son – Shaun and Geoff Marsh pose with the Sheffield Shield title•Getty Images

Marsh paid special tribute to his father Geoff Marsh, a former Test opener and coach for Australia.”That’s where I found the love of the game as a young kid when I was watching dad play,” he said. “From a young age all I wanted to do was be like him and he’s had a massive impact on my career.”Long touted as a Test star, having struck his maiden first-class ton as a 19-year-old against a strong New South Wales side featuring Steve and Mark Waugh, Marsh enjoyed a spectacular debut in 2011 with a century against Sri Lanka in Pallekele.He loomed as Ricky Ponting’s natural successor at No. 3 but suffered a calamitous form slump against India at home in 2011-12, where he scored just 17 runs in six innings.Inconsistency and injuries became a bane for the left-handed Marsh, whose stylish batting marked by elegant cover drives ensured he continued to tempt the national selectors.But he was an enigma at the crease and, similarly to younger sibling Mitchell, suffered wrath from fans left frustrated by the gulf of his performances.Marsh’s highest Test score of 182 was made against West Indies in Hobart in 2015, where he combined in a 449-run fourth wicket stand with Voges. It remains the second-highest partnership in Australia’s Test history.His Test pinnacle was arguably during the 2017-18 Ashes series, where he struck centuries in Adelaide and Sydney. At the SCG, Marsh memorably shared a 169-run partnership with Mitchell, who also scored a ton. It was the last of his six centuries, but he played a further 10 Tests over the next two years.”Any time you get to represent your country…those memories will last forever,” he said.Marsh finished with 2265 Test runs at an average of 34.31, playing his last Test in January 2019 against India after providing a veteran presence following the sandpaper scandal. He has enjoyed enjoyed more success in ODI cricket with an average of 40.77 from 73 matches and seven centuries.Marsh, who turns 40 in July, is set to continue in the BBL. He has one season left on his deal with Melbourne Renegades.

Australia continued their fine form in the West Indies but coach Matthew Mott says they’ve still got some tinkering to do ahead of the T20 World Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Sep-2019Australia women are likely to experiment with their batting order in the T20Is against Sri Lanka later this month as they further fine-tune planning ahead of defending the T20 World Cup title next year.Having completed a comprehensive 3-0 victory over West Indies in Barbados, they have now won 19 of their last 21 T20Is dating back to March 2018.They were not given much of a challenge by a depleted West Indies side, securing back-to-back nine-wicket wins following a six-wicket victory to start the series.Alyssa Healy was the leading run-scorer in the series and is locked in at the top of the order, but coach Matthew Mott said there were still various combinations to be tried ahead of the T20 World Cup which starts at the end of February although did not see them moving much outside this group of players.Beth Mooney made 4 and 8 in the first two T20s before finishing with an unbeaten 24 while Ellyse Perry came in at No. 3 ahead of captain Meg Lanning to knock off the target in the final outing.Australia play Sri Lanka in three matches in Sydney, starting at the end of September, and then have a tri-series with England and India ahead of the World Cup.”Our batting has been really good, thought we got better with each game, Mott said. “Our first chase wasn’t our best but the last two we did it in style. But we’ve still got some tinkering to do, think we’ll tinker a bit in the T20s against Sri Lanka with that batting order and get the right formula leading into the World Cup.”I think [the squad] will be pretty close to what we’ve got here. The only changes will be in batting orders. We’ve got a strong nucleus of players who we have earmarked to take a lead into the World Cup. Back home there’s a WNCL round which is a good opportunity for the players to put their hand up and show what they can do, but pretty sure we’ll be close to this 14.”Mott was impressed with the performance of legspinner Georgia Wareham in the final T20I against West Indies as she claimed 3 for 14 and was also pleased with the point-of-difference provided by pace bowler Tayla Vlaeminck even though she was wicketless.”We are really happy with the way the bowling until is going, there has been some great changes there, even seeing Megan Schutt trying some new things – coming round the wicket to the left-handers – and thought Georgia Wareham bowled incredibly well and spun the ball, so that’s good for her confidence.”[Tayla’s] bounce is really potent, fires the team up each time she comes in. You can see the batters are getting hurried up so even if she’s not taking wickets she’s changing the way the batters are moving their feet, putting pressure on at the other end.”The T20I series against Sri Lanka starts on September 29 at North Sydney Oval with all three matches played at that venue before three ODIs take place in Brisbane from October 5.

The Under-19 seamer was reported by the match officials during the Pakistan match on January 15

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Jan-2023Geovanis Uwase, the Rwanda fast bowler, has been suspended from bowling in international cricket with immediate effect after her action was found illegal at Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup. The decision was taken by the Event Panel, which comprises members of the ICC Panel of Human Movement Specialists.Uwase was reported by the match officials during Rwanda’s match against Pakistan on January 15, with footage captured during their match against Zimbabwe on January 17 shared with the Event Panel for review.In two games in the tournament so far, Uwase has one wicket from six overs at an economy rate of 3.”The assessment was carried out in accordance with clauses 3.5 and 4.7 of the ICC Illegal Bowling Regulations,” an ICC release said. “The Event Panel concluded that Uwase employed an illegal bowling action and, as such, in accordance with the regulations, she is immediately suspended from bowling in international cricket.”According to the ICC regulations, a bowling action is deemed illegal if a bowler’s elbow extension exceeds 15 degrees, measured from the point at which the bowling arm reaches the horizontal until the point at which the ball is released. Any elbow hyperextension is discounted for the purposes of determining an illegal bowling action.Uwase’s suspension will remain in place until Uwase undergoes a reassessment that confirms her elbow extension is within the permissible limit.Rwanda are currently second in their group with one win and one loss from two games, and are well-placed to qualify for Super Sixes. In their last match of the first round, they will face table-toppers England in Potchefstroom.

New Zealand A stay stuck on 276 for 5 with Dane Cleaver and Daryl Mitchell at the crease

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Feb-2020Stumps It was all rather damp and disappointing across in Lincoln, where the second day of the second and final four-day game between New Zealand A and India A had no cricket whatsoever. That left New Zealand at their overnight 276 for 5, with Dane Cleaver (46*) and Daryl Mitchell (36*) at the crease.On the first day, Cleaver was again the thorn in India’s side, playing a stubborn knock to make sure honours were even when play ended. After choosing to bat, New Zealand were in danger of finishing at a low score when they were 190 for 5, but Cleaver, fresh off his rearguard 196 in the previous game, dug in to keep the visitors at bay.He received good support from Mitchell, who is back in the A team after the T20Is for the senior team against India. Mitchell ended the day with 36 against his name, and the two have so far added 86 for the sixth wicket.The New Zealand top order – with the exception of Rachin Ravindra, who scored 12 – all got starts, but none of them could really carry on to score a big one. Glenn Phillips scored 65, but Hamish Rutherford stopped at 40, Will Young at 26, and Tim Seifert at 30.Mohammed Siraj got India their first wickets, in back-to-back overs, when he ended the 67-run first-wicket stand with Rutherford’s wicket in the 26th over and then accounted for Ravindra in the 28th. Shahbaz Nadeem had Young stumped not long after, and then, after a 76-run stand between Phillips and Seifert, Avesh Khan got into the act, removing both batsmen soon after one another.Many of the India Test squad are taking part in the game – of them, R Ashwin is the only bowler, and he had a fruitless day, bowling 22 overs without success while conceding 63 runs.The first four-day fixture, played at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval, had ended in a draw.

ECB Reporters Network10-Sep-2019Leicestershire 276 for 8 (Azad 86, Cosgrove 65) v Northamptonshire
Opener Hassan Azad passed 1,000 championship runs for the season as Leicestershire built a solid first-innings score after being put in by promotion-chasing Northamptonshire at the Fischer County Ground.Azad made 86, sharing a partnership of 122 for the third wicket with Mark Cosgrove as the Foxes reached an imposing 150 for 2. But Ben Sanderson produced the ball of the day to bowl the in-form Cosgrove for a fine 65 before Luke Procter picked up two wickets in two balls to ensure the visitors remained very much in the game.The Foxes lost captain Paul Horton early, Brett Hutton finding the right-hander’s edge with just his second ball of the day, and Alex Wakely taking a low catch at first slip.The pitch was playing well, however, and Colin Ackermann was understandably disappointed when, having reached 16 and beginning to play fluently, he hit Gareth Berg’s first delivery in Northamptonshire colours straight to Rob Newton at point to leave Leicestershire on 28 for 2.Azad and Mark Cosgrove raised a 50 partnership off 77 balls, but Azad did have one fortunate escape when on 34 he clipped a Hutton in-swinger to leg gully, only for New Zealand international Doug Bracewell, signed by Northants for the final three championship games of the season, to drop the chance.Azad and Cosgrove extended their third-wicket partnership well into three figures before Cosgrove, who had hit eleven boundaries and looked in wonderful touch, had his off-bail removed by a fine delivery from Sanderson which straightened off the seam.Procter then bowled Azad off the inside edge before swinging the next ball back in to win a leg before decision against Neil Dexter. George Rhodes, making his Leicestershire debut after joining the county from Worcestershire, dug in, compiling useful partnerships with Harry Swindells, Callum Parkinson and Chris Wright, before reaching an unbeaten half-century shortly before the close.”I didn’t set out with a target at the start of the season, but it means a lot to have achieved the 1,000 run milestone,” said Azad. “There was a little bit of seam movement early and it was hard work, but as the ball got older it came on a bit better, and in the afternoon session, especially with ‘Cozzie’ in his stride, scoring got a little bit easier. Well, for him, anyway!”They bowled really well to bring it back, Procter in particular, but George Rhodes played a really good and hard-working innings to lift us to a pretty good score. Hopefully we can get a few more and really give our bowlers something to bowl at.”Northants bowler Gareth Berg said: “It was fun to get a wicket with my first ball, even if it wasn’t quite the way I’d have liked to. We bowled a bit of a mixed bag overall, but we brought it back.”It wasn’t an obvious decision to bowl first, but we felt if there was anything to come out of the wicket it would be on the first day. We’ll come back tomorrow and hopefully end it quickly.”

Governments in Australia and abroad have asserted the importance of finding ways for sport to return

Daniel Brettig24-Apr-2020International exemptions to allow an India touring party to arrive in Australia next summer would be seriously considered by the federal government in the event of wider travel bans, strongly suggesting that Cricket Australia will be able to avoid losing up to A$300 million in revenue in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.While the vast majority of CA’s staff continue to reel from being asked to stand down on 20% of their regular pay from next week, while executives and a skeleton staff remain on 80% of their salaries, the governing body is understood to have received highly encouraging news about their outlook, at least as far as the lucrative India tour is concerned.On Friday, the Australian prime minister Scott Morrison announced work on establishing a set of national principles for sport and recreation to assist state governments. “What is a safe way to be able to do that, and to get as much consistency as we possibly can across all the states and territories,” Morrison said. “That was strongly supported today by all the states and territories, having something along those lines they would find very helpful.”In terms of the big codes – AFL, NRL, things like that – they’re both working through states and territories presently. And what we’ll be doing, and particularly what the medical expert panel will be doing, will be drawing their proposals together. My understanding is that they have already had quite a lot of expert advice going into their plans. That will probably present a lot of the homework that needs to be done to support the expert panel in setting out what some of those principles are.”ALSO READ: BCCI suggests deferring World Test ChampionshipGovernments both in Australia and abroad have asserted the importance of finding ways for sport to return, not only as revenue raisers for sporting bodies and broadcasters but also as a means of aiding the morale of the wider public. The ECB chief executive, Tom Harrison, is believed to have hammered home this message to Kevin Roberts and other board chiefs during conference call discussions this week, and it will be especially true if restrictions on large public gatherings mean that sport can only be viewed via television screens for quite some time.Such a scenario would likely leave CA with a hole of around A$50 million in its annual revenue of nearly A$500 million, but nowhere near the sort of blow they could have expected without being able to welcome India for a series of Test and limited overs matches due to pull the organisation out of the low point of its four-year revenue cycle.It will also raise further questions about how and why the CA chief executive Roberts – in moves endorsed by his board – chose drastic measures to stand down his staff a little more than a week ago while also pushing for deep cuts to the money CA distributes to its state association owners and the players represented by the Australian Cricket Association. CA is believed to have been advised by its auditors at PricewaterhouseCoopers that it is likely to qualify for the government’s JobKeeper scheme.On the players’ front, board to board meetings between a CA delegation of chairman Earl Eddings and board directors Michelle Tredenick and Paul Green, and an ACA cohort of its president Greg Dyer, chairman Shane Watson and board member Neil Maxwell, are believed to be imminent.However the states have been frustrated not only by a lack of financial information being provided but also by being asked to deal formally not with Roberts but his chief operating officer, Scott Grant.Information handed over by CA so far is believed to have been heavy on graphics and pictures but light on detail, not recalling a financial document so much as a brochure. Similar handouts were delivered by CA to the ACA during the 2017 pay dispute when Roberts led the governing body’s effort to break the players’ revenue sharing model until he was sidelined late in the process due to time running out, leaving the final dealings to his predecessor James Sutherland and also the former team performance manager Pat Howard.While the ACA is a partner in the game with CA, the state associations’ standing as CA’s structural owners and revenue beneficiaries is contributing to a rapid rise in frustration with the central governing body’s approach. Alienation of the state associations was one of the strongest themes running through the independent cultural review of CA that took place in 2018 in the wake of the Newlands ball-tampering scandal, an area that Roberts had previously been directly responsible for as CA’s head of people and “One Team”, ostensibly devised to bring all parties closer.

The matches will be available without a subscription on the Kayo platform after Nine did not take the rights

AAP and ESPNcricinfo staff23-Jan-2022The Women’s ODI World Cup will be removed from a paywall after Alyssa Healy labelled the Nine Network’s failure to pick up the event as a “slap in the face”.Healy and fellow players were left annoyed on Sunday morning when it was confirmed that Nine had purchased simulcast rights from Fox to broadcast the next two men’s World Cups. However missing from the release was March’s Women’s ODI World Cup in New Zealand. That prompted Healy to offer up 20 vouchers to steaming platform Kayo for followers on social media.Foxtel have since confirmed to AAP they made the call on Sunday to make it part of their “freebies pack”, meaning viewers will be able to watch it on Kayo without a subscription.The move will please both cricket fans and players, after both Healy and Rachael Haynes criticised the move.”It’s a little bit of a slap in the face to say that we’re not commercially viable,” Healy said. “That someone doesn’t want to stick their hand up and say, ‘we’re going to put this on the telly so that everyone can watch it’. It’s a little bit hard to take in that regard.”Not having it on free-to-air excludes a fair chunk of our population who don’t want to pay or can’t afford to pay for subscription TV.”Under the broadcast structure, Foxtel purchases the rights to all ICC tournaments from the ICC’s global partner Star Sports.Fox can then on-sell the rights to free-to-air broadcasters, which is how Nine picked up the rights to this year’s Men’s T20 World Cup and next year’s ODI World Cup.Nine also simulcast the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia, attracting 825,000 viewers for the final as well as criticism for placing it on secondary channel 9GEM while Married At First Sight was on the main channel.”I think people get obsessed with bums on seats and numbers at the ground,” Healy said. “But the reality of modern day sport at the minute is that’s not realistic for people to get there and watch the games live.”So for us it’s probably more relevant the TV audiences that we’re getting and even just looking the other night I think the first T20 here in Adelaide actually got really good number of of people watching the game considering we were fighting Nick Kyrgios for TV time.”AAP sought comment from Nine on Sunday if they had been offered the rights to broadcast the Women’s World Cup, but did not receive a direct answer.”Nine’s sub license agreement with Foxtel only includes rights to the Men’s T20 World Cup,” a Channel Nine spokesperson said in reply.The removal of the paywall subsequently came at the same time Haynes called for change.”It sends a really powerful message to see our female athletes have an opportunity to share in the spotlight,” Haynes said. “The visibility is extremely important. I am disappointed it’s not on free-to-air TV in Australia.”Meanwhile Nine confirmed it will screen every game involving Aaron Finch’s side at this year’s men’s T20 World Cup, which is being staged in Australia from October 16 to November 13.The network has flagged it will broadcast “other big match-ups”, likely to include a blockbuster between India and Pakistan at the MCG on October 23.
Every match at the two World Cups will be screened on Foxtel and Kayo.Last year’s Men’s T20 World Cup, where Australia won the title for the first time, was not available on free-to-air in the country because when the initial broadcast deal was signed it was due to be a Champions Trophy event.