Almost the entire advertising inventory for the upcoming ICC World Twenty20 has been sold out, official broadcaster ESPN (NYSE: DIS) Star Sports said today. The company was getting an average ad rate of Rs4 lakh per 10-sec spot during the tournament, ESPN Software India managing director R.C. Venkateish said. ESPN Star Sports is ICC’s global broadcast and production partner and paid $1.1 billion for the privilege in 2006, according to media reports then. The company will earn 80% more ad revenues compared with the last edition of the tournament, it said in a statement. Venkateish said that compared with the reported ad rates for IPL, the ICC property would attract a 20% premium on an average and a 100% premium when India was playing. The company also owns the mobile and digital rights to the tournament, but has not yet finalized its plans on these platforms. It will not stream the tournament on the Internet, however.

Starting on 5 June, the cricketing world’s official 20-20 world cup will be watched in 216 countries around the world through content syndications. Venkateish said some 75-80% of revenues from the tournament will come from India ad revenues. The tournament will run through 27 June. India is the defending champions of the trophy. At today’s press conference, ESPN Star Sports officials and the channel’s commentators such as Wasim Akram and Sanjay Manjarekar, went to great lengths to assure everyone that there would be no fatigue factor from the tournament closely following the just concluded Indian Premier League.

The very important question of whether there will be cheerleaders at the official tournament went unanswered.