SABC’s live World Cup coverage withdrawn

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The South African Broadcasting Corporation won’t televise any matches live for the remainder of the 2019 World Cup.

The SABC screened the Proteas’ matches against England and Bangladesh. They did not air Wednesday’s encounter with India, though. South Africa lost all three fixtures.

Three of South Africa’s remaining six matches will be belatedly broadcast during the evening of the match day. Two will be aired the next day. Their match against Sri Lanka on 28 June will only be broadcast via the SABC’s Radio 2000. The semi-finals and finals, too, won’t be on SABC.

The free-to-air SABC had confirmed the screening of a limited number of fixtures prior to the start of the tournament. The confirmation came after negotiations with pay channel SuperSport.

The SABC were the chosen broadcaster for the inaugural Mzansi Super League late last year.

‘This is a landmark moment for cricket in South Africa,’ said Cricket South Africa chief executive Thabang Moroe at the time.

‘For the first time, South Africa’s premier public broadcaster will have exclusive rights to a major cricket event, and this is very much in line with CSA’s vision of making cricket a truly national sport of excellence that is accessible to all.’

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