It’s 2020 and streaming cricket isn’t going on lockdown! Quite the opposite if you think about how great it will be to watch from home (have a tab running on the background during zoom meetings) and enjoy with your family! These days there are endless ways to enjoy a match without witnessing it in person! And if you did go to a stadium, you can’t catch the other matches happening simultaneously either.
That is why it’s so great to be able to watch cricket online with live streams for FREE! In this article, we will let you in on different ways to watch live cricket streaming for free. Keep scrolling down for our listings and choose the one you like best!
How To Watch Live Cricket Streaming For Free in 2021
What do we constitute as a free stream? Before we get started, let’s explain that the reason we make this distinction is because you will rarely get anything for free. On the internet, getting something free means paying one way or the other. Either if it is through an array of ads shown on a “free” stream, if you need to sign up for something or any other action needed such as captcha or using cookies to penetrate personal information.
We still consider these options free though as you don’t directly spend to watch, which seems to be the biggest hurdle for most people who are looking for live cricket streams.
Live Cricket Streaming Free Apps
The best option for watching live cricket online is through apps or websites that have bought their right to show the matches. Check out our list of such live cricket streaming apps:
Hotstar App
One of the two large competitors rendering their live cricket streaming free of cost and on the go in India (and other parts of the world) is Hotstar. They are one of the most well-known broadcasting brands of all of the bigger tournaments and matches of cricket on their services, as well as many TV shows and movies. Hotstar VIP is only for Indian customers. You can also use their services from Canada or the USA, but then you have to pay a monthly fee of $9.99.
Their services were free of charge if you wanted to with a 5 minute delay on the games. However, these days Hotstar wanted to let go of this but came out with a reasonable Hotstar VIP plan for only 365 per year (an unbelievable steal at 1 rupee per day). For IPL 2020, this is certainly a recommended option if you don’t want to sign up for International movies.
You can get Hotstar both on the Google Play Store and iTunes. If you want to watch on your desktop, you can visit their website: www.hotstar.com as well.
SonyLIV App
An alternative to Hotstar is SonyLIV, which is also an established well-recognized app that serves most of the bigger cricket games right to your mobile device. It also offers other content from the Sony Network channels.
The SonyLIV app is also free of charge, meaning you don’t have to sign-up or buy a subscription, but you are subjected to pesky adverts and potential delays in the stream.
You can find the SonyLIV app on both Google Play and iTunes, and you can also view their broadcasting on their website: www.sonyliv.com.
ESPN3
Another option awaiting eager cricket fans is to watch live cricket is through ESPN. Most cricket fans probably know them from their excellent website ESPNcricinfo, but they also broadcast a whole range of sports and their biggest focus is on American sports.
This is why you will find most sports on ESPN and ESPN2 to broadcast sports like baseball, American football, ice hockey, basketball and so on.
But they do show other sports as well on their ESPN3 channel, which is where you’ll discover (for free) their higher quality cricket matches. ESPN offers their broadcasting online which can be accessed through Google Play and iTunes.
Fair warning: You likely need to get your data services from an affiliated service and be in the right region to be able to use ESPN3.
Betting Sites
Next up on our list of live cricket streaming free of cost is to watch cricket online through online betting sites. That is right: the betting sites themselves now offer free streams of some of the bigger cricket events (and other sporting events) around the globe.
This offer is not 100% free of cost, however, as they need you to register for an account. Usually, you need to have funds in your betting account or have placed a bet within the last 24 hours to be allowed access to see such a stream.
Another issue to note, at Bet365 for example, is that you won’t be able to access the viewing of streams in full screen.
Bet365 Cricket Live Streaming
Bet365 is one of the best sites when it comes to bookmakers online that offers live streaming of cricket. They have covered some of the biggest tournaments in the past like the World Cup, IPL, PSL and others.
They do have some restrictions on their streams though (such as no full screen oddly) often in the form of location restrictions and having to have funds in your account, but I think that is a fair trade-off to be able to catch the game live for free.