The International Cricket Council on Thursday announced a ground-breaking partnership with Facebook which will become the exclusive digital content rights partner for ICC global events in the Indian sub-continent and will also carry post-match recaps throughout the rest of the world through to 2023.

The collaboration builds on the unprecedented digital success of the ICC World Cup 2019, which cemented cricket’s position as one of the world’s most-watched sports, netting 4.6 billion #CWC19 video views across ICC’s digital and social media platforms.

Facebook will carry a range of digital content across four years including match recaps, in-play key moments and other match and feature content, giving the hundreds of millions of cricket fans in the region the opportunity to deepen their engagement with the sport with more content available than ever before.

ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said: “We are delighted to welcome Facebook to the global cricket family for this multi-year, multi-market partnership which is a first for our sport. The combination of one of the world’s most-watched sports with one of the world’s largest platforms is exciting for the future of our game.

“The record-breaking growth in digital consumption at this summer’s ICC World Cup demonstrated the continued power of cricket to connect and engage more deeply with diverse audiences around the world. Throughout the competitive bid process, we received tremendous interest from a range of platforms, all of whom recognise the phenomenal reach of cricket. In Facebook, we have a genuine partner who shares in our ambition to continue to grow and deepen engagement with cricket fans globally using its platforms.”

Ajit Mohan, VP and Managing Director Facebook India said, “We are excited to partner with the ICC to bring the most exciting moments in cricket to Facebook Watch and to chart the next stage of technology-led transformation in cricket.

With Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, the ICC has an exceptional opportunity to leverage our family of apps to serve current sports fans as well as bring in an entirely new generation of fans. Every day, people come to our platforms to talk about, and form friendships around, cricket. With this partnership, we will be able to serve these fans with the kind of premium content that can ignite new conversations, new connections and new followership.

The future of AR and VR is being charted by Facebook and we are excited about the possibility of bringing the best of our innovations to fans around the world.”