The International Cricket Council and YouTube have announced a partnership to expand global access to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026, with live coverage and dedicated content targeting emerging cricket markets around the world.
Under the deal, all official warm-up matches and the ICC Captains’ Carnival have already been streamed live on the ICC’s YouTube channel, while every tournament match will be available live in selected territories. Initial live-coverage markets include Nepal, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan. Audience development campaigns will run in Malaysia, France, Italy, Hong Kong, South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand, with additional fan engagement planned in Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
The YouTube broadcast will include local-language content and commentary feeds in Japanese, Bahasa Indonesia and Thai, building on a similar layer rolled out during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026. Match highlights and on-demand content will be globally available throughout the tournament.
The opening match between England and Sri Lanka on Friday will also be available on YouTube in the United Kingdom through Sky Sports, the ICC said.
“The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 represents a significant opportunity to introduce new audiences to cricket and deepen engagement with existing fans around the world,” said ICC Head of Digital Finn Bradshaw. “Through our collaboration with YouTube, we are making the tournament more accessible than ever before through live coverage, local language offerings, creator-led storytelling and enhanced discoverability across the platform.”
YouTube APAC Vice President Gautam Anand said the partnership would help break language barriers. “By opening access to emerging markets and introducing localised commentary, we are breaking language barriers and helping fans connect more deeply with the sports they love.”
The announcement lands the same day the tournament gets under way, with Chamari Athapaththu’s Sri Lanka side opening play against hosts England after their squad was confirmed by Sri Lanka Cricket in late May and a seven-wicket warm-up win over the Netherlands earlier this week. All 12 captains gathered last weekend on London’s Waterloo Bridge for the Captains’ Carnival launch with pre-tournament ticket sales hitting a record 200,000.
Source: Newswire — ICC, YouTube expand global access to Women’s T20 World Cup 2026.
