STAR Life OK to air Asia Cup 2014 live

Starting February 25, the tournament will be exclusively telecast on STAR Life OK in the UK and Europe.

In an attempt to offer cricket to the large Asian population in the UK and Europe, STAR Life OK will live telecast the Asia Cup 2014.

According to the official communiqué from the entertainment channel, The Asia Cup 2014 will be exclusively televised at 8 am, starting February 25. A total of 11 matches will be played with the opening game on February 25 and the final on March 8, scheduled to be held in Bangladesh.

Yeshpal Sharma, senior vice-president, STAR UK and Europe, says, "Given the passion for cricket amongst Asians worldwide, we are very proud to bring the Asia Cup 2014 to our viewers in the UK and Europe and offer them live cricket on television."

This tournament promises to be one of the most competitive cricketing events in the Asian sub-continent. It will feature One Day Internationals played between leading Asian countries - India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, along with Afghanistan. Afghanistan will be participating in a major ODI tournament for the first time, the channel states.

It is pertinent to note here that in India, the entertainment channels have been airing cricket for the audiences. While Multi Screen Media started airing the Indian Premiere League on SET Max, Colors recently bought the rights to air Celebrity Cricket League, which was being aired on Sahara One, earlier.

For the record, the STAR UK channel portfolio includes three general entertainment channels (Star Plus, STAR Life Ok, STAR Jalsha) and a Bollywood movie channel (STAR Gold) with 100 per cent English subtitles. Star Plus is the UK's first and only Asian channel to be available in full HD and the only Asian channel to be available on Sky Go. The STAR channels claim to be available in over 10 mn UK households on Sky, Virgin Media and TalkTalk. STAR Life OK is available in the UK (on Sky 783, Virgin Media 804 and Talk Talk 442), the Netherlands (on UPC, caiw, kpn, XS4all BV, Telfort BV and Glashart) and France (on Free).