Cricket fans living in the US have one main way to watch the sport live: Willow, a cable channel (also available online via Sling TV) which airs the sport. Well, that's not quite true any more, because a major free option is also now available.
This option is called Willow Sports, which is a free online channel for cricket operated by the sporting broadcaster. Like most 'free' channels, it's what's known as FAST, which stands for free ad-supported streaming TV, so you'll see commercials amongst your cricket.
You may be wondering how much cricket Willow Sports will show, given that it's free, and the answer could surprise you.
Willow has promised that the channel will show select live sports from ICC events and the IPL, starting with the ongoing ICC Women's T20 World Cup which plays until Sunday, October 20.
2025 brings the ICC Champions Trophy, the end of this ICC World Test Championship cycle and its own iteration of the Indian Premier League, so lots of much-watch cricket could be broadcast on Willow Sports... though we'll have to see exactly how many games per tournament it'll show.
As well as live sports, Willow Sports will show more cricket coverage including replays of major live games and highlight shows. Two examples provided in the press release include "Virat Kohli's record-breaking century", presumably the 2022 India vs Bangladesh match which saw him become the record-holder for most centuries scored in international cricket, and "the USA's remarkable victory over Pakistan" which was a surprising upset that occurred in the T20 World Cup earlier in 2024.
That's all well and good, but how do you go about watching Willow Sports? Well, you can do that through a number of free online streaming services. Sling Freestream, Plex, DistroTV, YuppTV, KaroStream and brand-new platform Free Live Sports will offer the channel and all of those are free. Fubo will also have it.
It doesn't sound like Willow Sports will completely take over the cricket streaming market, unless its line-up of ICC and IPL matches covers whole tournaments. But given that it's free, it could prove a great way to give prospective cricket fans a taste of the game before they head for one of the paid options.
