New Zealand might just have around 2.5 lakh Indian community, which doesn’t even amount to 5% of the total population of the Tasmanian nation. However, the Indian influence on global cricket is worthy enough to influence the New Zealand Cricket host broadcaster Spark Sport to telecast the highlights of India’s last tour with Hindi commentary.
Cricket fans in New Zealand can now enjoy highlights of India 2019-2020 full tour of New Zealand on-demand with Hindi commentary on Spark Sport.
Adapting its operations around the COVID-19 situation, Spark Sport has worked with Star India and New Zealand Cricket to add this twist to its cricket broadcast for Hindi-speaking cricket fans in the country.
Head of Spark Sport, Jeff Latch says it’s important that the streaming service caters to a wide range of sports viewers and having this content would give the channel the opportunity to test the demand for cricket coverage with Hindi commentary as well as English commentary in New Zealand.
“In what we believe is a first for New Zealand cricket coverage, we now have International NZ vs India matches with dedicated Hindi commentary on the platform. We hope the New Zealand Indian cricket community will enjoy re-watching the games with commentary provided by cricketing greats such as VV Laxman and Sunil Gavaskar.
“When adding content to Spark Sport we always make a conscious effort to think about the diverse audiences who watch and engage with our content and in this instance, we think a large number of cricket fans will love this.
“Although the Hindi commentary is only available on one series for now, we hope to be able to source more cricket coverage with Hindi commentary should this first series prove popular. We know that New Zealand’s sports community is diverse, and the demographic of the average Kiwi sports fan is varied and has changed hugely in the last 10 years.”
New Zealand’s Hindi-speaking cricketer Ish Sodhi says, “It’s no secret that the Indian community loves cricket so it’s great to see Spark Sport catering to the New Zealand Indian community who follow the sport religiously.
“There’s a huge following of Indian cricket fans here in New Zealand, and for many, English is their second language. Having the option to watch a series or a few games with Hindi commentary on a New Zealand streaming service will probably be a welcome surprise.
“It’s great to see Spark Sport trying to support a more diverse sports audience that now, more than ever before, includes a range of new New Zealanders who love sport.”
Spark Sport will leverage the official broadcast rights deal announced in October 2019. With live sports events still currently on pause across the world, Spark Sport has also extended its ‘no charge’ period for new and existing customers until end-May.
Spark Sport will take the content with Hindi commentary from Star India.