PVR Cinemas announced on Friday that it has closed a deal with the International Cricket Council (ICC) to live screen the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 in India.

“Audiences are gradually resuming their movie going experience at cinemas with new movies being released and screening of T20 matches on the large screen will further help in bringing back audiences to cinemas,” the company said.

PVR Cinemas association with ICC involves live screening of all India games along with the semi-finals and final. The matches will be streamed across over 75 cinemas in 35 plus cities in the country. This includes tier-1 cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad a mix of tier-2 cities, which will give access to the huge cricket fan base located in these geographies.

“The Big Screen offers a unique opportunity to maximize the coverage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Cricket and Movies complement each other as in India they are considered as two religions that unite the country. Movie watching and cricket watching is a shared entertainment experience and when it magnified on the Big Screen leads to an adrenaline rush from fans quite similar to a stadium,” Gautam Dutta, CEO, PVR Limited said in a statement.

PVR has called it an ‘extremely special’ association with the ICC in current times when the multiplex industry is still in the revival mode. Cinemas in India are operating under restricted capacity and operating hours with only Telangana, Rajasthan and Karnataka allowing them to operate at full capacity.

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The seventh edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament, jointly held in UAE and Oman, begins this Sunday. The tournament, originally scheduled to be played in India was shifted to UAE and Oman due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The qualification stages of the tournament will commence on October 17 while the finals will be held on November 14.

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(Edited by : Kanishka Sarkar)