The BBC’s services in Bangla, Hindi, Marathi, Pashto, Sinhala, Tamil and Urdu will be
adding a new perspective to the Cricket World Cup coverage for fans in the UK and around
the world. Throughout the tournament, the BBC’s broadcasts from venues in England and
Wales include commentary from BBC World Service’s multilingual journalists who will
share their insights with the UK audiences as they report the World Cup to millions of fans in
India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka as well as diaspora audiences around the
Ben Sutherland, Sports Editor for World Service Languages said:
“The World Service’s Asian language services have been providing superb cricket coverage
for years – and that has only been amplified recently with in-depth reporting and analysis
around the Indian Premier League and the Pakistan Super League. The correspondents are
great personalities that know the sport – and the players – back to front. The Cricket World
Cup in England will give an opportunity for them to be heard in the UK and enhance the
already comprehensive coverage of this massive event – part of the BBC’s incredible summer
of sport, including also the Women’s World Cup, the African Nations Cup and Wimbledon”
The BBC News Indian languages correspondents, Vinayak Gaiykwad, Sivakumar
Ulaganathan and Nitin Srivastava will hear fascinating diaspora stories at this year’s World
Cup. All of India’s matches will be covered and fans will talk about their hopes for their team
in the historic UK towns and cities where matches will be played. Predictors, match analysis,
special stories and FB live during the matches will be available on all platforms of BBC
Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil & Telugu. Gaggan Sabherwal will feature a special
programme on Sachin Tendulkar’s friendship with Solly Adams, a man who brought
Tendulkar to the UK and Yorkshire and is a former cricketer himself.
In a 30-day countdown to the tournament, the BBC News Afghan service in Pashto has been
posting a Cricket World Cup question on its social-media platforms each morning and
publishing the answer in the evening. The World Cup content includes exclusive interviews
with the Afghanistan national team players, their profiles, and a match predictor. A TV and
radio documentary by BBC Pashto’s Hameed Qayoomi, tracing the Afghan team’s journey to
the 2019 World Cup, will air on the BBC’s Pashto, and global English platforms. Author of a
book on the history of Afghan cricket, BBC Pashto multimedia editor Emal Pasarly, will
provide daily analysis and commentary. The World Cup will feature in BBC Afghan
service’s multimedia output in Dari, with player profiles, cricket jargon busters, match
predictors and daily games reports.
BBC News Bangla will run a series of interviews with key Bangladeshi players and videos
about iconic venues such as The Oval in London. The service will talk to travelling
supporters and Londoners of Bangladeshi origin who are facing the dilemma of which team
to support when Bangladesh play England. Reporters Faisal Titumir and Raihan Masud will
go live on social media on match days and provide regular reports on radio.
From listicles, daily games reports to in-depth features, BBC News Urdu will delight fans
with all things cricket across its TV, radio and digital output. A team of correspondents led by
Abdul Rasheed Shakoor will be reporting from inside and outside the stadiums, covering the
Pakistan and other important matches and side stories. On FB Lives and other social-media
platforms as well as radio programmes, analysts, Sami Chaudhry and Lina Aziz will deliver
live games analysis and engage with audiences. Throughout the tournament, BBC Urdu will
run exclusive interviews with, and profiles of, key Pakistani players. Special features include
stories of Pakistanis who follow cricket back home and reports from Sialkot – hub of
Pakistan’s sports manufacturing industry, asking what it is that batters like the most about
their bat and what kind of ball makes the bowler happy.
