Sky Sports to broadcast 50 county matches this summer

Sky Sports will broadcast 50 county matches this season as part of its biggest year of live cricket.

Every team will feature at least once across the three domestic competitions - the NatWest T20 Blast, the Royal London One-Day Cup and the LV= County Championship.

Coverage starts on May 15 when defending T20 Blast champions Birmingham Bears take on the Notts Outlaws at Trent Bridge.

A host of top talent from the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup will be playing domestic cricket this season, including several members of the ICC team of the tournament.

Viewers will be able to see in-form stars like Brendon McCullum (Birmingham Bears) and Glenn Maxwell (Yorkshire Vikings) alongside big hitters like Chris Gayle (Somerset), Kumar Sangakkara (Surrey) and Shahid Afridi (Northamptonshire Steelbacks) live on Sky throughout the summer.

Bryan Henderson, Sky Sports executive producer for cricket, said: “This season you can catch the best of the domestic cricket action on Sky Sports with every county, all three competitions and 50 live games.

"With a host of stars from the World Cup having joined county teams, there’ll be lots of big hitting and quality domestic cricket live on Sky this summer.”

The Sky Sports cameras visit Headingley on June 5 for the Roses match as Yorkshire Vikings face Lancashire Lightning, on the day the England squad will be available to play in the NatWest T20 Blast. On Finals Day (Saturday August 29), Sky Sports will show all three games as the champions of the competition are crowned.

Live Test Cricket

In a packed cricket schedule, viewers can also see the IPL, England’s tour of the West Indies, the one-day international against Ireland, the series against New Zealand, The Ashes and, for the first time, every ball of the Women’s Ashes, all live on Sky Sports.

Fans will be able to watch the action live on mobile, laptop and selected tablets via Sky Go wherever they are and follow live over-by-over commentary and scorecards of every match.

Non-subscribers can also see the matches without a contract through online streaming service NOW TV. By purchasing a Sky Sports Day Pass for £6.99 or Sky Sports Week Pass for £10.99, they can enjoy access to all seven Sky Sports channels and watch on a TV with a NOW TV Box or on a range of devices.

In January, Sky Sports extended its broadcast partnership with the England & Wales Cricket Board until 2019, increasing its unrivalled commitment to English cricket for a further two years. The agreement offers cricket fans unprecedented coverage of England home fixtures, county matches, women's and age grade cricket, and takes the existing partnership into its 14th year.