The upcoming women’s cricket ODI World Cup will not be broadcast on traditional free-to-air television in Australia, after Channel Nine announced it will only broadcast the next two men’s World Cups.
Nine has confirmed it will broadcast this year’s men’s T20 World Cup and next year’s men’s ODI World Cup. But the women’s ODI World Cup, due to begin in New Zealand in March, will not be broadcast by the network.
The women’s ODI world cup will instead be exclusive to Foxtel and Kayo.
In a media release, Nine’s Director of Sport, Brent Williams said the network was excited to broadcast the men’s world cup events.
“Any cricket World Cup is a premium event on the international calendar, and we’re excited to be the free-to-air of the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia and the 2023 World Cup which will be held in India,” Williams said.
“Nine has a long and proud history with cricket and we look forward to that continuing with all Australian and key matches of these prestigious events being broadcast across Nine’s platforms.”
Australian batter and wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy took to Twitter on Sunday to air her thoughts, writing “In light of this mornings ‘interesting’ news – I’m going to offer up 20x @kayosports Gift Cards for people to be able to watch our World Cup next month…Only available to Aussie based watchers (sorry). Hit me up if you want one. #BreakTheBias.”
Speaking to reporters at Adelaide Oval on Sunday, Healy said: “It’s a little bit of a slap in the face to say that we’re not commercially viable.”
“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.”
It has since been confirmed that the women’s ODI World Cup will be available to viewers without a paid subscription on Kayo Freebies.
Sarah Styles, the director of Victoria’s Office for Women in Sport and Recreation, also tweeted about the decision on Sunday.
“Absolutely and utterly the wrong call by Channel 9 as broadcast partner for ICC’s events,” Styles said.
“Decisions like this by Channel 9 don’t stack up against reason. #1 ranked team, independently shown to be one of Australia’s favourite teams, backed by some of Australia’s largest advertisers like CommBank and Cadbury, out-rates the majority of sport content.”
Channel Nine held the broadcast rights for the 2020 women’s T20 World Cup, but relegated the final – played between India and Australia at the MCG in front of 86,000 people – to its secondary channel, 9Gem.