CRICKET followers will be able to view full match highlights from last year's inaugural ICC World Twenty20 tournament in South Africa direct from the International Cricket Council website.

======STOP SUMMARY=====

In association with the internet streaming company Vividas, the ICC is set to conduct a trial aimed at distributing the footage direct to the public as a pay-per-view video portal linked to the ICC's website, from which internet users can stream match highlights.

The trial will be offered to the general public from May 14 May to July 31 with high-definition footage from Twenty20 tournament. A 60-minute highlights package will cost up to a maximum of US$4 and will be even cheaper in some regions – as low as US$2 for an hour.

The ICC commercial manager Campbell Jamieson said: "This is about making this unique and spectacular event more accessible to people, particularly those who live in regions where cricket does not receive much coverage on television. We want to get closer to the fans so that viewers in, say, Malaysia , Germany or Argentina, will be able to watch cricket whenever they like, even though broadcasters in their countries might not show it very often."

He added: "Vividas was chosen because its streamed image can deliver video content via the internet in previously unachievable quality – without the need for downloads, without firewall issues and in high-definition quality," he said.

According to Paul Neville, chief executive of Vividas Group plc, the technology will help to continue the globalisation of cricket and take it to a wider audience. He said: "The business community has embraced this technology for corporate communications and it’s great to see it now being used for streaming this major sporting event. Because of the unlimited scalability of Vividas’s technology, the stream is unaffected by the number of viewers, contrasting with traditional streaming technologies and making it perfect for a major sports event with a virtually unlimited number of viewers."