In line with providing world-class sport entertainment, Ariana Television Network (ATN) is thrilled to announce it has done it again for all cricket fans across the country.
This time, ATN has managed to secure the broadcasting rights to four major international tournaments, which means June through to November will be an action-packed sporting period for viewers in Afghanistan.
The four cricket events that will be broadcast live on Ariana Television are as follows: ICC World Test Championship; the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2023; ACC Asia Cup; and ICC Cricket World Cup
ICC World Test Championship
The first tournament that will be screened live on Ariana Television will be the ICC World Test Championship. This will run from June 7 to June 11.
The world’s top-ranked Test teams, India, at No.1, and Australia, at No.2, will take each other on in this exciting final next month, scheduled to be held at the prestigious Oval Cricket Ground in London.
India were the runners-up of the previous edition where they lost the final to New Zealand.
This time however, they seem better prepared with three back-to-back Test series wins against Australia; the last one being in the run-up to the start of the IPL in March.
ICC World Cup Qualifier 2023
This tournament will follow close on the heels of the World Test Championships, in fact it starts just two days after the Oval Test wraps up.
The ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2023 will run from 18 June to 9 July 2023 and will be played in Zimbabwe.
There are two spots up for grabs in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup which takes place at the end of the year.
The teams that will battle it out for one of the two spots are Ireland, Nepal, Netherlands, Oman, Scotland, Sri Lanka, UAE, USA, West Indies and Zimbabwe.
Eight teams have already qualified. They are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa.
ACC Asia Cup
The Asia Cup, scheduled for September, will now also be broadcast live by ATN. This is the only continental championship in cricket and the tournament is played in both the white-ball formats – ODI and T20I.
It was established in 1983 when the Asian Cricket Council was founded as a measure to promote goodwill between Asian countries and the first ODI edition of the competition was played in 1984 in which three teams – India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka participated. T20I was only introduced in 2016.
For this year’s tournament, the groups and format were announced on 5 January 2023, with the six teams split into two groups of three.
A total of 13 matches will be played, which includes six league matches, six Super 4 matches, and a final.
India, Pakistan and Nepal, have been placed in Group A, while the defending champions Sri Lanka are grouped with Bangladesh and Afghanistan in Group B.
The top two teams from each of the groups will progress to the Super 4. From there, the top two teams will play each other in the final.
ICC Cricket World Cup
After months of world-class cricket tournaments, the year will be rounded off by the all-exciting ICC Cricket World Cup.
Once again, this tournament will be broadcast live by ATN.
This One Day International (ODI) tournament will see 10 countries battle it out for the trophy, which was last won in 2019 by England.
The tournament will be hosted by India with dates rumored to be from 5 October to 19 November. However, some reports indicate the final might be held on 26 November.
Originally, the tournament was scheduled to be played from 9 February to 26 March 2023 but, in July 2020, it was announced that the tournament would be delayed to an October–November window, following the disruption of the qualification schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
England are the defending champions, having won the previous edition in 2019, defeating New Zealand in the final.
This line-up meanwhile comes on the heels of ATN having secured the rights to broadcast the exhilarating IPL tournament this year, which is currently ongoing.
Cricket fans who haven’t yet tuned in to watch the daily matches can do so from the comfort of their own homes by simply tuning in to Ariana Television or stream live on ATN websites.
ATN will meanwhile publish all schedules and broadcasting times ahead of each upcoming tournament. So be sure to watch out for updates on our website.
