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JioHotstar signs three-year deal to stream Jharkhand’s new franchise T20 league
The inaugural JT20 League, owned by the Jharkhand State Cricket Association and organised by AV24 Sports, features Ishan Kishan, Kumar Kushagra and Anukul Roy among its headline names
MUMBAI: Jharkhand is getting its own franchise T20 league, and JioHotstar is making sure the rest of India watches. The streaming giant has signed a three-year exclusive digital broadcast deal with the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA) for the JT20 League, covering the 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions. The inaugural season bowls off on June 10.
The JT20 League is Jharkhand’s first official franchise-based T20 competition, owned by the JSCA and organised by AV24 Sports Private Limited. Its stated purpose is straightforward: give the state’s cricketers a professional stage on which to be seen. Given that Jharkhand has already produced some of India’s most celebrated international players, the raw material is not in short supply.
The star power is real. Ishan Kishan, Robin Minz, Kumar Kushagra, Anukul Roy, Sushant Mishra, Utkarsh Singh and Virat Singh are among the players set to feature in the inaugural edition — a line-up that should give the league immediate credibility with cricket fans well beyond the state’s borders.
The 2026 edition runs for 14 days, with double-headers through the league phase across the first 12 days, double-header semi-finals on day 13, and the final and presentation ceremony on June 23.
Shahbaz Nadeem, honorary joint secretary of the JSCA, was direct about what the JioHotstar deal means. “The JT20 League was built to nurture talent that has the potential to represent India, and there is no better platform to showcase that than JioHotstar. We look forward to the country watching,” he said.
Sambhav Jain, director of AV24 Sports, added that the league was an important platform for emerging cricketers. “Together with JSCA and JioHotstar, we look forward to bringing Jharkhand’s cricketing talent to audiences across India,” he said.
For JioHotstar, which already streams the IPL, the WPL, ICC events and bilateral series for the BCCI, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa, the JT20 deal extends its grip on Indian cricket’s entire ladder, from the biggest franchises in the world down to the state competitions producing the next generation. For Jharkhand’s cricketers, it means there is nowhere left to hide — and nowhere better to be found.
