Sky Sports makes Women’s Cricket World Cup Final free-to-air

Sky Sports has announced the Women’s Cricket World Cup Final will be free-to-air.

England qualified for the match with a thumping win over South Africa on Thursday, and will defend the crown they won on home soil in 2017 against six-time winners Australia in Christchurch, New Zealand. 

Sky will air the match, which will begin at 2am on Sunday morning UK time with build up from 1am, on Sky Sports Main Event (401), the Sky Sports Cricket World Cup channel (404), Sky Showcase (106), Pick (159), and the Sky Sports YouTube channel - with the latter three all available to viewers for free.

This is a similar move to when the men’s side made it to the 2019 Men’s Cricket World Cup Final, which was shown by Channel 4 as a one-off event. England went on to win that match in a super over against New Zealand.

This time round, Sky Sports has decided to broadcast it free-to-air itself, and managing director Jonathan Licht said: “This is an exciting moment for the country where fans will hopefully get to see England lift the Cricket World Cup once again.

“We are pleased to be able to make another moment of national significant free for the whole nation to watch.”

Women’s cricket has been experiencing growth in the UK recently, with new competition The Hundred breaking viewing records for the sport. However, given the time of the match it is unlikely that record will be broken on the weekend.