Even as fans in almost all cricketing nations will be glued to TV during the India-New Zealand World Test Championship final (WTC) starting on June 18, Aussie fans will miss out as no broadcaster has secured rights to televise the match that will decide the world's best Test team.
"The International Cricket Council is scrambling to find a provider to show the match between India and New Zealand in Southampton, starting next Friday," said a report in theroar.com.au.
The report quoted a spokesperson of streaming provider Kayo as saying, "At this stage, we don't have the rights to show the final but discussions are ongoing."
The ICC also confirmed that there is no deal yet although it expressed confidence that the deal will be thrashed out in the coming days.
Usually, Star Sports, the ICC's broadcast partner, handles the global broadcast network. However, since the WTC final is a one-off match, it has not taken up the responsibility of distributing the broadcast across the world.
The WTC final's broadcast rights are held by Star India in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka; Sky in England, SuperSport in South Africa and Sky New Zealand in New Zealand.
Australia, who were in the running to make it to WTC final, missed out on it after India defeated England 3-1 in the Test series in India.
Aussies had earlier lost to India at home and did not tour South Africa due to Covid-19 pandemic, and that affected their chances of qualifying for the final.