MUMBAI: The Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) gets underway in St Lucia on Friday 4 August when the St Lucia Stars take on Trinbago Knight Riders at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium. This is the first of 34 action packed matches that will take place over the next six weeks before the final is played at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad on 9 September.  

The Hero CPL will have more coverage than ever before, as in addition to the TV coverage the tournament will be broadcast live over Facebook to 64 countries for free.

In addition to the live broadcast there will an hour-long highlight show from each match and every Friday night there will be a weekly magazine show called “The Biggest Party in Sport.”

There are also plenty of other ways for fans to enjoy the Hero CPL with highlights packages being provided through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well was ground-breaking unique content from players and coaches. This is the Hero CPL’s fifth year and it is going to be the most innovative yet.

Meanwhile, the Hero CPL will be broadcast in the United States by Willow TV, the primary cricket broadcaster in the US. This will be the first time that Willow have brought coverage of the Biggest Party in Sport to the US, and cricket fans across the region will be brought coverage of the 34 matches of the tournament.

In addition to the matches live on the Willow television channel on the Internet at www.willow.tv, they will also be partner with the CPL to air four matches live on their Facebook page that will be free to access by fans in the US. These matches will take place on Friday nights throughout the tournament. The matches will be as follows:

Trinbago Knight Riders v Guyana Amazon Warriors, Friday August 11, 9pm

St Kitts & Nevis Patriots v Trident – Pride of Barbados, Friday August 18, 9pm

Jamaica Tallawahs v St Lucia Stars - Friday August 25, 8pm

Jamaica Tallawahs v Guyana Amazon Warriors, Friday September 1, 8pm

The tournament gets underway on August 4 when the St Lucia Stars take on the Trinbago Knight Riders at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium before the USA leg of Hero CPL 2017 gets underway the next day.

Pete Russell, the Chief Operating Officer of Hero CPL said: “North America is a hugely important part of what the Hero CPL have planned and having a broadcasting partner that is so committed to bring top quality cricket coverage to viewers across the region is hugely important to us. It is great to have Willow on board with us for 2017.”

Vijay Srinivasan, CEO of Willow said: “Willow is proud to add the Hero CPL to our line up of top tier cricket from around the world. With the matches being played in the US and in the Caribbean, the timings are perfect for US television audiences, giving fans a tremendous opportunity to watch live coverage of some of the biggest names in cricket.”

The Hero CPL will be broadcast live by UNILAD through their Facebook channel in the UK and Ireland. This the first time a sports league have broadcast their matches through UNILAD and it is another example of the digital innovation for which the Hero CPL has become synonymous.

All 34 matches will be live and for free in the UK and Ireland and UNILAD will also be sending a film crew to get exclusive behind the scenes footage of the tournament to bring their followers a real flavour of the Biggest Party in Sport.

Damien O’Donohoe, CEO of the Hero CPL said: “UNILAD are one of the internet age’s great success stories are we are delighted to be associated with them.”