ICC reveals broadcast production plans for Champions Trophy

The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced a stellar line up of commentators as well as detailed broadcast production plans, which for the first time in cricket, include Player Tracking for the ICC Champions Trophy to be held in England and Wales from 1 to 18 June.

Former captains Ricky Ponting of Australia, Brendon McCullum of New Zealand, Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka and Graeme Smith of South Africa will be making their ICC TV debut, according to ICC’s media release.

Other big names who will commentate through the tournament include Sourav Ganguly, Shane Warne, Michael Slater, Nasser Hussain, Michael Atherton, Shaun Pollock, Sanjay Manjrekar, Ian Bishop, Ramiz Raja, Simon Doull and Athar Ali Khan.

“As a player, I always looked forward to the Champions Trophy. Winning it on two occasions was a big thrill. This year I’m really looking forward to it being staged in England and being a part of the commentary team,” Ricky Ponting said.

“I’m expecting Australia and England to make the final with Pat Cummins and Jason Roy, two guys to stand out across the two weeks. I can’t wait!”

The eight-team tournament, which kicks off with host England playing Bangladesh at The Oval on 1 June, will see a state-of-the-art coverage which will include 34 cameras at every game, including eight ultra-motion Hawk-Eye cameras, front and reverse view stump cameras and a Spidercam.

In what is a first for cricket coverage, six Player Tracking cameras will be used in each match while the final at The Oval on 18 June will have additional pictures provided by a drone camera to supplement the broadcast coverage.

Among other enhancements for the live coverage will be an Analysis Zone that will add depth to the coverage, bringing out details and nuances for the benefit of the audience.

Regular broadcast tools such as the Hawk-Eye will be supplemented by an in-depth cricket data analytics system to be provided by analytics app Cricviz and a player tracking and real-time data visualization system made available by leading graphics company Chyron Hego.