Sport
Sports fans in for a treat, as ATN secures rights to 4 key cricket tournaments
In line with providing world-class sport entertainment, Ariana Television Network (ATN) is thrilled to announce it has done it again for all cricket fans across the country.
This time, ATN has managed to secure the broadcasting rights to four major international tournaments, which means June through to November will be an action-packed sporting period for viewers in Afghanistan.
The four cricket events that will be broadcast live on Ariana Television are as follows:
ICC World Test Championship; the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2023; ACC Asia Cup; and ICC Cricket World Cup
ICC World Test Championship
The first tournament that will be screened live on Ariana Television will be the ICC World Test Championship. This will run from June 7 to June 11.
The world’s top-ranked Test teams, India, at No.1, and Australia, at No.2, will take each other on in this exciting final next month, scheduled to be held at the prestigious Oval Cricket Ground in London.
India were the runners-up of the previous edition where they lost the final to New Zealand.
This time however, they seem better prepared with three back-to-back Test series wins against Australia; the last one being in the run-up to the start of the IPL in March.
ICC World Cup Qualifier 2023
This tournament will follow close on the heels of the World Test Championships, in fact it starts just two days after the Oval Test wraps up.
The ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2023 will run from 18 June to 9 July 2023 and will be played in Zimbabwe.
There are two spots up for grabs in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup which takes place at the end of the year.
The teams that will battle it out for one of the two spots are Ireland, Nepal, Netherlands, Oman, Scotland, Sri Lanka,
UAE, USA, West Indies and Zimbabwe.
Eight teams have already qualified. They are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa.
ACC Asia Cup
The Asia Cup, scheduled for September, will now also be broadcast live by ATN. This is the only continental championship in cricket and the tournament is played in both the white-ball formats – ODI and T20I.
It was established in 1983 when the Asian Cricket Council was founded as a measure to promote goodwill between Asian countries and the first ODI edition of the competition was played in 1984 in which three teams – India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka participated. T20I was only introduced in 2016.
For this year’s tournament, the groups and format were announced on 5 January 2023, with the six teams split into two groups of three.
A total of 13 matches will be played, which includes six league matches, six Super 4 matches, and a final.
India, Pakistan and Nepal, have been placed in Group A, while the defending champions Sri Lanka are grouped with Bangladesh and Afghanistan in Group B.
The top two teams from each of the groups will progress to the Super 4. From there, the top two teams will play each other in the final.
ICC Cricket World Cup
After months of world-class cricket tournaments, the year will be rounded off by the all-exciting ICC Cricket World Cup.
Once again, this tournament will be broadcast live by ATN.
This One Day International (ODI) tournament will see 10 countries battle it out for the trophy, which was last won in 2019 by England.
The tournament will be hosted by India with dates rumored to be from 5 October to 19 November. However, some reports indicate the final might be held on 26 November.
Originally, the tournament was scheduled to be played from 9 February to 26 March 2023 but, in July 2020, it was announced that the tournament would be delayed to an October–November window, following the disruption of the qualification schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
England are the defending champions, having won the previous edition in 2019, defeating New Zealand in the final.
This line-up meanwhile comes on the heels of ATN having secured the rights to broadcast the exhilarating IPL tournament this year, which is currently ongoing.
Cricket fans who haven’t yet tuned in to watch the daily matches can do so from the comfort of their own homes by simply tuning in to Ariana Television or stream live on ATN websites.
ATN will meanwhile publish all schedules and broadcasting times ahead of each upcoming tournament. So be sure to watch out for updates on our website.
Afghanistan defeated Iraq 5-3 on Friday and moved closer to the 2024 FIFA Futsal World Cup qualification.
Afghanistan’s goals were scored by Akbar Kazemi (1), Farzad Mahmoodi (1), Mehran Ghulami (1), and Jawad Safari (2).
In the other match of playoff in Thailand on Friday, Kyrgyzstan beat Vietnam 3-2.
Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan will face off for a spot at the Futsal World Cup on Sunday at the Playoff final.
Rishabh Pant smashed an unbeaten 88 as he led Delhi Capitals to a tense IPL win over Gujarat Titans on Wednesday, boosting his chances of playing for India at the T20 World Cup.
Delhi posted 224-4 courtesy of a 113-run stand between Pant and fellow left-hander Axar Patel, who hit 66, after they slipped to 44-3 inside six overs at their home Arun Jaitley Stadium, AFP reported.
The hosts kept Gujarat down to 220-8 to win by four runs after David Miller’s 23-ball 55 and an unbeaten 21 off 11 deliveries by Rashid Khan.
Mukesh Kumar kept his nerve in the final over for Delhi’s fourth win in nine matches as they kept their playoff hopes alive in the T20 tournament.
Pant, 26, struck his third half-century of this season after 14 months away from top level cricket following a frightening car accident when his Mercedes rammed into a barrier, flipped and caught fire in December 2022.
Pant, a wicketkeeper-batsman, suffered multiple injuries and was rushed to hospital before being airlifted to Mumbai for further treatment and surgery.
“Everyday that I’m in the middle, I feel better,” man of the match Pant said after his 43-ball blitz studded with five fours and eight sixes.
“Every hour on the field matters, I love being on the field. I try to give it my 100 percent. I think the first six in the match gives me the confidence in a game.”
Pant has not only fired with the bat in the IPL but his sharp work behind the stumps prompted Delhi’s director of cricket Sourav Ganguly and coach Ricky Ponting to back the India star for making the national team for the World Cup in June, AFP reported.
– ‘Great fight’ –
Up and coming Australian batsman Jake Fraser-McGurk gave Delhi a strong start with his 14-ball 23 but medium-pace bowler Sandeep Warrier took three wickets including two in one over.
Patel, a bowling all-rounder promoted to number three in the batting, brought up his fifty with a boundary off Rashid before another Afghanistan spinner Noor Ahmad had him caught at long-on.
Pant reached his fifty in style with a six off Mohit Sharma and then hammered the medium-pace bowler in a 31-run 20th over when he finished with a six, four and three hits over the fence to raise the roof.
South African Tristan Stubbs watched the blitz from the other end after he smashed Sai Kishore in the 19th over, which went for 22 runs, for his unbeaten seven-ball 26.
In reply, Gujarat lost skipper Shubman Gill for six off Anrich Nortje before impact substitute Sai Sudarshan smashed 65 off 39 balls.
Gujarat lost regular wickets but the left-handed Miller smashed Nortje for three sixes and a four to give Delhi a scare before his departure in the 18th over.
Rashid kept up the fight till the end as Gujarat needed 19 off the final over and five on the last ball.
“I think we played some really good cricket, disappointing to lose in the end, but great character shown by everyone,” said Gill. “Great fight till the end and we never thought we were out of the game at any point.”
Attack Energy FC defeated Sorkh Poshan Khafi 1-0 in the 9th match of Afghanistan Champions League (ACL) in Kabul on Wednesday.
Hasib Ahadi scored the only goal and was named man of the match.
“I congratulate this victory to the Attack Energy team. It was a good game. There were some problems that, unfortunately, we couldn’t score in the first half of the match. Thank god we finally won the game,” said Ahadi.
In the 10th ACL match, played on Wednesday, Istiqlal Kabul FC beat Mawj Sahil FC 2-1.
Shadab Malikzada was named man of the match and awarded the trophy.
Tomorrow’s matches will see Khadim FC take on Maiwand FC at 1:00 PM, while Jawanan Wahedi FC face Adalat Farah FC at 3:30 PM.
The matches are broadcast live on Ariana Television every day.
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