How to Watch England Cricket Abroad in 2026
England's home cricket summer is one of the longest-running fixtures in the sporting calendar — Test series, white-ball internationals and the domestic game stretching right across the warmer months.
The 2026 season is a big one: England won the T20Is against India 4–0 and took the ODI series 2–1; The Hundred ran from 21 July to 16 August; and England swept Pakistan 3–0, the Edgbaston Test finishing on Saturday 12 September.
The summer runs on from there: Sri Lanka's T20Is, which England swept 3–0, then the ODIs — England won at Durham, Sri Lanka levelled at Headingley, and England took the decider at The Oval on Sunday 27 September to win the series 2–1.
Being overseas for part of it — a holiday, a work posting or a permanent move abroad — needn't put the cricket out of reach. This guide walks through how to keep up with the England summer wherever you happen to be.
Where England Cricket Is Shown in the UK
For UK viewers, the cricket is split across a few broadcasters:
- Sky Sports — the home of England's summer cricket, showing every ball of the home international and domestic season live — via the Sky Go app if you subscribe to Sky, or a NOW membership without a full Sky package
- Channel 5 — a small free-to-air live selection: four England home T20Is each summer (two men's, two women's), simulcast with Sky. The ODIs and the Tests aren't part of it
- BBC — The Hundred and highlights on BBC television and BBC iPlayer. There are no live England internationals on BBC television — but the BBC holds exclusive live ball-by-ball commentary of every England home Test, ODI and IT20 on Test Match Special, via BBC Radio and BBC Sounds — every bit as geo-blocked, and every bit as easy to unblock
So most of the home summer — the Test series, the white-ball games, the domestic season — lives on Sky Sports and NOW, with a smaller free-to-air selection on Channel 5 and The Hundred on the BBC. England's overseas tours are a different deal entirely: they're sold by the host board, not by the England and Wales Cricket Board, so they don't all land in the same place.
India's home series are on TNT Sports via HBO Max. South Africa is settled: England's three Tests from 17 December and three one-day internationals in January are on Sky Sports and NOW. The rest of the winter is less so — Australia in November, then Melbourne in March for a one-off 150th Anniversary Test — and those rights move from year to year. Check where your winter's cricket has actually landed before you buy a subscription for it.
The radio is a different story, and a better one. Test Match Special is going to Australia. The BBC holds UK audio rights to England's tour, so the white-ball series in November is on BBC Radio and BBC Sounds — no subscription, no television deal required. The BBC's own schedule says which matches are covered.
The commentary's geo-blocked like everything else the BBC does, which means it's exactly the sort of thing a UK residential IP puts back within reach. Whichever way the television rights fall, one router covers every route.
Why You Can't Just Watch It Abroad
The catch is that Sky Sports, NOW, Channel 5 and BBC iPlayer are all geo-restricted to the UK. The moment you're abroad, they detect your location and the coverage stops — whether you're paying for Sky Go or NOW or just after a free-to-air game.
Most people reach for a VPN first, yet the well-known VPN apps tend to get shut out by UK streaming platforms — they route through shared data-centre IP addresses that broadcasters have learned to spot and block. There's more detail in our guide on why ExpressVPN, NordVPN and Surfshark stop working on UK streaming.
The Reliable Way to Watch England Cricket Abroad
What does hold up is a VPN router built around a UK residential IP address — an everyday home-broadband address, the sort millions of British households sit behind. To Sky, NOW, Channel 5 and the BBC, your connection simply looks like a viewer at home in the UK, so you're far less likely to be blocked.
Since it operates at router level, every device you connect runs through it — a smart TV, an Apple TV, a Firestick or any streaming box. The cricket plays through the very apps you'd open at home, on the television, at full quality.
A day of Test cricket runs long, so a real television setup beats hunching over a laptop — and the whole household can share the session rather than crowding round one phone. It suits anyone keeping up with England from across Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, the Gulf and further afield.
We Ship a Complete Setup Worldwide
Here at Stream UK TV Abroad, we ship pre-configured SmartHub VPN routers worldwide, set up to work straight out of the box. Plug the router into your internet abroad, connect your TV or streaming device, and open Sky Sports, NOW or BBC iPlayer as you would at home.
It's the same kit our customers rely on for their wider UK viewing, so one router handles the cricket and everything else together. If you already watch Sky abroad, our guide on how to watch Sky Stream abroad covers that side of the setup in more detail.
Get Set Up for England's Winter in Australia and South Africa
The home summer is done — England swept Pakistan 3–0 and won the Sri Lanka one-day series 2–1 at The Oval.
England's white-ball tour of Australia is comfortably in range: the first one-day international is in Perth on Friday 13 November, with Test Match Special's ball-by-ball commentary on BBC Sounds. Order in the next few weeks and you're set up and tested well before it, and long before South Africa's Tests start on Sky Sports and NOW on Thursday 17 December.
If a big-name VPN has just left you looking at a block screen, the same timetable applies.
UPS Express keeps delivery and customs clearance as fast and hassle-free as possible; UK orders ship with DPD, and that's usually next-day after dispatch (a few remote areas, like the north of Scotland, can take a little longer).
If you're adding one of the two Freely boxes we ship, it's worth knowing which: England's home cricket is on Sky Sports, so you'll want a NOW pass to reach it — and it's the Netgem PLEIO that runs the NOW app.
The free-to-air route is less fussy: iPlayer works on the PLEIO and the Manhattan Aero alike — that's where the BBC's 16 live Hundred matches went this summer — and Channel 5 runs on both boxes too, for its handful of live England T20Is.
Following more than the cricket? The football's back too — see our guide to the Premier League abroad.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I watch England cricket abroad?
Wherever you are, through the same UK services you'd use at home — but they're geo-blocked, so you need a UK connection. Most of it means Sky Sports, via Sky Go or a NOW pass; Channel 5 and the BBC fill in the free-to-air corners.
Is England cricket on free-to-air TV?
Only a little. Channel 5 shows four England home T20Is each summer, simulcast with Sky, and the BBC has The Hundred plus highlights — but the Test series and the one-day internationals are on Sky Sports and NOW. All of it is UK-only.
Can I listen to Test Match Special abroad?
Yes, with a UK connection. Test Match Special is BBC Radio and BBC Sounds only — ball-by-ball on every England home Test, ODI and IT20, no subscription needed — and BBC Sounds checks your location just as iPlayer does. A UK residential IP unblocks both.
How do I watch the cricket without a Sky subscription?
A NOW membership carries Sky Sports on its own, without a full Sky package — the simplest route to the Test series and the white-ball games. Put the router in and the NOW app runs on the television, so the whole household watches together rather than one person on a phone.
Final Thoughts
England's home summer of cricket is made for following day by day — and a spell overseas needn't mean missing out. Sky Sports and NOW, Channel 5, the BBC: every one of them checks where you are, and every one stops the moment you leave the country.
A VPN router carrying a UK residential IP is the steadiest way to reach the lot from wherever you are, and it works best alongside a proper television-based setup. Sort it out in good time and the next series goes on the cricket rather than on fixing the connection.
At Stream UK TV Abroad, our pre-configured routers are built to make precisely that straightforward — sent out worldwide, with plenty of time to spare before England's winter in Australia and South Africa.
