Sydney - Travellers will soon be able to experience the “Spirit of Australia” at 30 000 feet once Australian flag carrier Qantas begins streaming live cricket matches.
Qantas is in the final stages of negotiations with Cricket Australia to allow passengers to live stream matches on domestic and international flights, with a trial set to run on domestic routes, before full roll-out in 2017.
“A flight from Sydney to Perth should be enough time to catch an entire match of twenty20 (cricket) which is fitting when you're flying the Spirit of Australia,” Qantas chief Alan Joyce said.
“Live cricket is just one of the partnerships we are looking at, and it's in addition to the streaming services you'll be able to access just as you do on the ground.”
The Twenty20 cricket is a shortened version of game where each side gets twenty overs to get as many runs as they can. Instead of the typical test match taking place over five days, Twenty20 only needs four to five hours for explosive play that has been wowing crowds. The decision however is getting mixed responses from die-hard cricket lovers, with some heralding the move while others are not so sure.
“Long haul flights are boring enough without having to inflict more pain on passengers watching us lose again,” an avid cricket lover who declined to be named, told Xinhua.
Australia's national cricket team is currently underperforming on the world stage, suffering a humiliating 3-0 whitewash on its tour to Sri Lanka to loose their coveted World No. 1 Test match ranking.
Following their third straight whitewash on the sub continent, Australia has moved to third place on the ICC world rankings behind India and Pakistan, ranked first and second respectively.
Xinhua