BBC’s Asian services to enrich the coverage of Cricket World Cup 2019

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

world.

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.