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Cricket is a sport that is great to watch live and in person, but given that there are so many matches going on at the same time it is impossible to be there to catch all of them live or on the TV. That is why it's so great to be able to watch cricket online with live streams.
In this guide we will detail various ways that you can watch live cricket online, either as a paid service or for free - and some that are kind of in between.
In todays day and age there are countless ways to watch most any kind of sport online, and cricket is no exception. We will focus our listings on the most popular ones for now and keep expanding as new products pop up.
Click here to watch live cricket streams at Bet365
Just so we are clear on what we constitue as a free stream:
A free stream is one where you do not have to pay money for direct access.
The reason we make this distinction is because you will rarely get anything for free. You will always pay one way or the other, either if it is through a plethora of ads shown on a "free" stream, if you need to sign up for something or any other action needed.
We still consider these options free though as you don't have to directly pay, which seems to be the biggest hurdle for most people who are looking for live cricket streams.
The best option for watching live cricket online is through apps or websites that have paid for their right to show the matches. Here we list a few of the most popular ones:
One of the two main competitors when it comes to live streaming cricket on the go in India (and other parts of the world) is Hotstar. They are one of the most well-known brands and shows all of the bigger tournaments and matches of cricket on their services, as well as many TV shows and movies.
Their services was free of charge if you wanted to with a 5 minute delay on the games. However, recently Hotstar decided to do away with it but came out with a reasonable Hotstar VIP plan for only 365 per year (1 rupee per day). For IPL 2020, this is certainly a recommended option if you don't want to sing up for International movies.
You can get Hotstar both in the Google Play Store and iTunes. If you want to watch on your desktop, you can visit their website: www.hotstar.com.
Hotstar VIP is only for Indian customers. You can also use their services from Canada or USA, but then you have to pay a monthly fee of $9.99.
An alternative to Hotstar is SonyLIV, which also has a very good app that serves most of the bigger cricket games right to your mobile device. It also offers other content from the Sony Network channels.
This service is also free of charge, meaning you don't have to sign-up or buy a subscription, but you are subjected to ads and potential delays in the stream.
You can find the SonyLIV app in both Google Play and iTunes, and you can also view their offerings on their website: www.sonyliv.com.
Yet another alternative to watching live cricket is through ESPN. Most here probably know them from their excellent website ESPNcricinfo, but they are actually covering a whole range of sports and their biggest focus is on the american sports.
This is why you will find most sports on ESPN and ESPN2 to be sports like baseball, american football, ice hockey, basketball and so on.
But they do show other sports as well on their ESPN3 channel, which is where they deliver the higher quality cricket matches.
ESPN is available online through Google Play and iTunes.
You likely need to get internet from an affiliated service and be in the right region to be able to use ESPN3.
One of our preferred ways of watching cricket online is through online betting sites. That is right: the betting sites themselves now offer free streams of some of the bigger cricket events (and other sporting events) around the globe.
This offer is not free however, as in you only needing to register for an account. Usually you need to have funds in your betting account, or have placed a bet within the last 24 hours to be allowed to watch such a stream.
Another issue to note, at Bet365 for example, is that you won't be able to watch the streams in full screen. Yeah I know, a pretty odd restriction.
Bet365 is one of the best sites when it comes to bookmakers online that offers live streaming of cricket. They have covered some of the biggest tournaments in the past like the World Cup, IPL, PSL and others.
They do have some restrictions on their streams though, often in the form of location restrictions and having to have funds in your account, but I think that is a fair trade-off to be able to catch the game live for free.
Stream schedule is not available right now.
Check back again later to see if it has been updated or visit Bet365 to checkout their live streaming schedule directly.
I thought we could finish off the free section with a shady method of watching cricket online: through illegal streams.
These are often websites that are putting up a re-stream of a regular broadcast of a sporting event, without the consent of the owners of the distribution rights, with the intent of putting their own ads up on this website to essentially steal money from the original broadcasters.
Some don't even put up ads as they merely want to provide this service to others as they just want to help others and feel like a hero. Slightly better, but only slightly.
In addition to it being illegal, you also run the risk of catching malware or being the target of other malicious activity from the site that you are visiting. Usually if they are already willing to break the law in one avenue, it might not be far off for them to break another by trying to scam you.
Our suggestion is that you find a legitimate avenue to watch your cricket matches, to support the sport you love, but thought we should mention the option here for completeness.
The old-school, and still most common way of watching bigger cricket events is by paying for access. Back in the day this was done by either paying for cable at the right network or alternatively through pay per view (PPV).
Nowadays you can still watch the events on TV through cable or DTH, but you will likely also have the option to stream cricket through the operators apps.
The big advantage to paying for the streams is the reliability and stream quality you will get. You can expect the stream to actually be working and running through the whole match, and you will also usually be able to see it in the highest possible resolution.
Here will we list the most common options for paid cricket live streams for the best viewing experience.
Although mobile and tablet use has grown immensely the last decade, and so the usage of live streaming, still the most common way of watching cricket is through your regular television screen.
The gathering of family and friends around the big box (or flat screen for some) to tune in to a big cricket match or other huge event or program is still a regular occurence in many homes around the globe.
There are plenty of channels that shows cricket in countries like India, Australia, UK and other cricket loving regions. It would be a bit much to cover all of them for all of the regions, so we will focus on the biggest ones here.
The most popular TV channels for viewing cricket in India is:
They show most of the biggest cricket matches on their sports channels, including the IPL and the Cricket World Cup.
Whichever of these you choose comes down to your preference. Both of them have been reducing their prices recently and offer many cricket matches on their sports channels. Maybe you have some other shows you like to watch that might be available on the one, but not the other?
You will also find that they both offer the option to download their app to your mobile device and stream cricket matches or other shows on your mobile phone for example. Great if you are on the go, away on vacation or business or have other pressing matters that keeps you away from the television.
Although the best way to enjoy cricket is to actually watch it get played out, there are alternatives if you simply are not able to get access to a stream where you are. Here are some ways that you can stay up to date on the latest with your favorite cricket teams:
If you want to catch the game updates and scores, you can check out our live score page. Here you can catch all the currently live matches, recently concluded games, as well as upcoming ones.
We post all the important stats for every game: scores, stats per players, ball-by-ball and other information that is relevant. You will stay up to date by using our services and get the latest results delivered right to you.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is probably considered the biggest T20 tournament that is played all year, maybe even rivaling the T20 World Cup.
Played in the cricket-crazed homeland India, it boasts the biggest budgets, best cricket players, the largest crowds and a huge interest.
These games are most often shown live on TV in India, and given that the IPL is not very fond of betting, they don't give their rights to the betting sites to stream their games for example.
I would check out your go-to sports channel to see if their games are on there, otherwise your best bet is to head over to our live score page.
The Pakistan Super League (PSL) is one of the most popular T20 cricket leagues, and naturally many people are looking for places to live stream it as well.
As with most other leagues, I would first check the sources that we have listed in this article to see if they offer viewings of their games. Most of them do.
We know that some of the betting sites like Bet365 have shown PSL matches in the past, so that is one spot you can check out as well if you are looking to watch the IPL.