News Broadcasting
Kenya will fill SA shoes at Sharjah Cup
MUMBAI: The Sharjah Cup will take place at the original venue notwithstanding the Iraq Conflict. South Africa, one of the teams originally scheduled to participate in the triangular, has pulled out citing security concerns. Surprise World Cup semi finalist Kenya will replace them.
This year’s Cherry Blossom Sharjah Cup from 3-10 April takes place under the stadium’s lights. Pakistan’s new captain is Rashid Latif . They also have a new coach in Javed Miandad who must be hoping that the team finds some of the form it showed in 1999 when it finished runner up at the World Cup edition in England.
Readers will recall that at this month’s World Cup in South Africa, Kenya defeated two of the other teams who will participate at Sharjah, namely Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. Pakistan is in a bit of a mess right now with Akram, Akhtar and company having been given the boot. Therefore, this is another golden opportunity for Steve Tikolo’s minnows to cement their position in international one day cricket.
Sri Lanka reached the semi finals of the World Cup and have retained captain Sanath Jayasuriya to lead their team and defend their trophy after last year’s victory over Pakistan.
Presented by former Indian star Sanjay Manjrekar, the commentary team will steer us through 10 hours a day of live coverage from the stadium.
The programme lineup is as follows
| Date | Match |
| 3 April | Pakistan vs Zimbabwe |
| 4 April | Pakistan vs Sri Lanka |
| 5 April | Zimbabwe vs Kenya |
| 6 April | Sri Lanka vs Kenya |
| 7 April | Sri Lanka vs Zimbabwe |
| 8 April | Pakistan vs Kenya |
| 10 April | Final |
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI:Â Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
