Sky Sports has agreed a last minute deal to broadcast the England cricket team’s tour of Pakistan.
The tour consists of three test matches, taking place 7-11 October, 15-19 October, and 24-28 October. Sky will confirm its commentary team and production plans before the start of the series, with the action to be shown on both its Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event channels. Sky Sports News, its app, and social channels, will also keep fans up to date.
Sky Sports will have Ian Ward, Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain on the ground in Pakistan to present its coverage, and the trio will join the world feed commentary lineup of Urooj Mumtaz, David Gower, Aamer Sohail, Bazid Khan, Zainab Abbas, and Ramiz Raja.
While the tour was announced in advance, organisation has been relatively last minute. The venues for the three matches were only announced last month, giving England fans little time to organise travel. Sky had previously had a three-year deal with the Pakistan Cricket Board to show its home internationals, including England tours, and the Pakistan Super League T20 competition that ended at the start of this year.
Broadcast deals for overseas England tours have become a more last-minute affair in recent years, with the last two tours of India seeing last-minute deals for TNT Sports and Channel 4.