JAIPUR: Just how drastically the COVID-19 pandemic has upended the cricketing season. With the Indian Premier League in suspended animation, the ONLY live cricketing action that is in play across the cricketing world at the moment is in Taiwan of all places.
SportsTiger – a multi-sport aggregator application from Indian fantasy sports platform MyTeam11 – has secured a media rights agreement as the global streaming partner for the inaugural edition of the Taipei T10 League.
Taiwan, which is cited as a shining example of how a technologically advanced economy can and should handle the COVID-19 pandemic, is among the few countries in the world that have re-started sporting events, albeit under strict controls.
Which is where the interest of the likes of MyTeam11 (and its better known and much bigger competitor Dream11) comes in. Fantasy gaming (and in India fantasy cricket in particular) is pretty much dead in the water if there is no live sport to punt on.
As reported earlier, Dream11 was also in the market for said rights saw one can presume some sort of a bidding contest took place to secure the rights in which MyTeam11 “bested” its much bigger rival.
For the record, Taiwan Cricket – which is not recognized by the government – promotes the sport and organizes games among teams on the island nation.
Coming back to Taipei T10 League, the tournament, which kicked off at the weekend (April 25), has scheduled the final for May 17. All matches are taking place at the Yingfeng Ground in Taiwan’s cpital city and are being played on every weekend i.e. Saturday and Sunday. A total of 24 matches will be played starting from the league stage to the final day of the tournament.
The tournament features eight teams, which include the likes of Hsinchu Titans, Taiwan Daredevils, TCA Indians, Taiwan Dragons, Chiayi Swingers, PCCT United, ICCT Smashers and FCC Formosans who are competing in the league stage followed by qualifiers, and knockouts.
The upcoming weekend will feature the final round of the league stage encounters with six matches being played, three on each day. All the matches will be streamed LIVE and Exclusive on SportsTiger.
Speaking about the partnership, Vinit Godara, co-founder, SportsTiger, said: “With cricket fans across the world eagerly waiting for the beautiful game to restart, the Taipei T10 League comes as welcome news for us. We knew that there is no better way to bring smiles on to the faces of millions of fans other than offering live-action and hence, as soon the opportunity came we were determined to make it count.”
He further added: “The game of cricket is in its nascent stage in Taiwan and I am sure that it will not only help in popularizing the game but also attract interest from the bigger cricketing nations through our medium.”
The league is following a very unique format. In the league stage, all the teams will play three matches each and will be ranked from 1 to 8 based on their performances. The table-toppers from both the groups will face-off in a semi-qualifier before which the other lower-ranked six teams will be divided into further two groups namely Qualifier Pool 1 and Qualifier Pool 2. From these two groups, two teams will qualify for the semis. The bottom four teams will fight for the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th place respectively.
SportsTiger App. is available for download both on Play Store and App Store.
The groups of the inaugural Taipei T10 League are as follows:
Group A – Hsinchu Titans, Taiwan Daredevils, TCA Indians, Taiwan Dragons
Group B – Chiayi Swingers, PCCT United, ICCT Smashers and FCC Formosans
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