Missed Ranji Trophy semifinal on TV? Here’s what you need to know

The semifinal in Pune between Bengal and Delhi was being telecast on Start Sports First, a free-to-air channel that even cable operators haven’t heard of.

Published : Dec 17, 2017 19:05 IST , Chennai

 Delhi celebrates a wicket in its semifinal clash against Bengal in Pune on Sunday.
Delhi celebrates a wicket in its semifinal clash against Bengal in Pune on Sunday.
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Delhi celebrates a wicket in its semifinal clash against Bengal in Pune on Sunday.

If you are an ardent cricket fan and want to catch the Ranji Trophy semifinals live on television, you must contact your cable operator to check if Star Sports First is being aired. If you subscribe to DTH services, you must include that in your plan right away if you wish to watch the semifinal clash between Bengal and Delhi in Pune.

On Sunday, fans of Ranji Trophy were left dejected as most of the cable operators and popular DTH services didn’t air that particular channel. While both semifinals — in Pune and Kolkata, where Karnataka plays Vidarbha — were streamed live on Hotstar , most of the viewers could not find it on television as the channel was not visible.

‘Not aware’

Launched earlier this year, Star Sports First is a free-to-air channel which is said to have a ‘wide reach’. But most of the operators Sportstar spoke to on Sunday had not even heard of the existence of such a channel. “Quite a few people called us up asking which channel would telecast Ranji semifinal, but that channel ( Star Sports First ) is not enlisted here. In fact, we are not even aware of it,” a cable operator from Kolkata said.

Read: Karnataka, Vidarbha share honours on day dominated by bowlers

Accepting the fact that the channel is not available in many areas, most BCCI officials, however, remained mum on the issue, while a few called it ‘poor planning’. As it is a busy Sunday in terms of sporting action, the live telecast unavailable on most networks, prompting miffed cricket fans to take to social media to express their anger.

As it happened - Ranji Trophy semifinals, Day One

It would be interesting to see whether broadcasters finally show the Ranji Trophy semifinals in a popular channel like Star Sports 1 from Monday.

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