Exclusive, Live Broadband Coverage of Stanford Twenty20 Cricket Tournament Live on ESPN360.com
NEW YORK – ESPN360.com and the Stanford Twenty20 Cricket Tournament have reached an agreement for exclusive U.S. broadband coverage for all matches of the 2008 and 2009 tournaments.
ESPN360.com will provide U.S. fans with complete live coverage of all 19 matches from the second annual tournament, held in Antigua. Each match will also be available for on-demand replay for a period after its completion.
“We’re very excited about bringing this high-quality Twenty20 cricket to ESPN360.com. Cricket is one of the most popular sports in the world, the West Indies are an International powerhouse,” said John Lasker, director, programming and acquisitions, ESPN digital media.
“As the US sports fan base becomes more global in composition and interests, ESPN360.com is well positioned to bring an exciting, truly worldwide, lineup of events including everything from the NBA to cricket to NASCAR to soccer to rugby and many other sports.”
The Stanford Twenty20 Tournament is a single-elimination knockout cricket competition featuring teams from multiple Caribbean territories, with the winning team taking home a purse of $1 million and the runner up taking home $500,000. Created by Antiguan financier Sir Allen Stanford, the inaugural Tournament took place in July/August 2006 with Guyana emerging as the 2006 Stanford Twenty20 Champions.
Twenty teams will compete in the 2008 Tournament, held in Antigua, including: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and the US Virgin Islands.
2008 Stanford Twenty20 Cricket Tournament Schedule – All Matches Start at 7 p.m. ET
Jan. 26 Cayman Islands vs. St. Lucia
Jan. 27 Dominica vs. British Virgin Islands
Jan. 29 Turks & Caicos vs. Montserrat
Jan. 30 St. Kitts vs. US Virgin Islands
Feb. 1 St. Vincent vs. Winner Match 1
Feb. 2 Trinidad & Tobago vs. Winner Match 2
Feb. 3 Grenada vs. Anguilla
Feb. 5 Barbados vs. Winner Match 3
Feb. 6 Jamaica vs. Bahamas
Feb. 8 Nevis vs. Winner Match 4
Feb. 9 Antigua vs. Winner Match 5
Feb. 10 Guyana vs. Bermuda
Quarterfinals
Feb. 13 Winner Match 6 vs. Winner Match 7
Feb. 15 Winner Match 8 vs. Winner Match 9
Feb. 16 Winner Match 10 vs. Winner Match 11
Feb. 17 Winner Match 12 vs. Winner Match 13
Semifinals
Feb. 22 Semifinal 1
Feb. 23 Semifinal 2
Championship
Feb. 24 2008 Stanford Twenty20 Championship
The new ESPN360.com is a 24/7 broadband sports network, delivering more than 2,500 live global sports events per year (more than ESPN and ESPN2 combined).
The service offers a mosaic of screens that allow users to follow multiple events simultaneously, and expanded controls including live-event pause, rewind and fast forward.
ESPN360.com is available at no additional charge to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection from an affiliated service provider. It has more than doubled its distribution since August 2006, and is available in 20 million households nationwide via more than 25 Internet service providers around the country including AT&T, Verizon, RCN, Frontier, Cavalier, Charter, Mediacom, Conway, Grande Communications and more.
