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How to Watch the Indian Premier League Live – Stream The IPL Cricket Free with a VPN

If you are a cricket fan who wants to watch as many games as possible, then you need a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Using a VPN will let you unblock geo-restricted IPL streams from all around the world. With a VPN you can unblock not only IPL cricket but also British, South African, Australian, and many other cricketing nations’ televised matches.

In this article, we list the best ways to watch the IPL and show you how to use a VPN to unblock IPL streams.


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How to Watch Indian Premier League Cricket

Using a VPN to watch Indian Premier League Cricket is very easy. Just follow these simple steps below:

  1. Select a VPN for IPL cricket. To unblock the cricket, we recommend ExpressVPN because it is secure, fast, and has excellent Indian, UK, and US servers (plus servers in 94 countries for watching cricket).
  2. Select an Indian VPN server and click Connect.
  3. Navigate to Hotstar Disney +.
  4. That’s it! Your VPN workaround is set up and you are ready to watch the cricket online.

However, if you are in a rush to watch IPL cricket as quickly as possible, we recommend ExpressVPN – because it is by far the best overall VPN for unblocking cricket streams from all over the world. If you want the best, get Express!

Visit ExpressVPN

Stream IPL Cricket via Hotstar (Recommended Method)

Star India owns the rights to broadcast IPL, and in 2020 is has made deals for those matches to be broadcast in 120 countries worldwide. This will give VPN users plenty of options for accessing live streams because it will be streamed in more places than ever before.

Star India will broadcast IPL in India in 7 different dialects (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi, and Malayalam). Those broadcasts will be available on Star Sports and the various regional versions of Star Sports carrying the matches.

Star India broadcasts of matches will also be available online via Star India's s streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar (Star India is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India).

That means you can use a VPN to access the matches from outside of India, but you will need to pay a subscription cost of either $22 per year or $4 per month. These are low prices that we think are well worth paying if you are a cricket fan!

In addition, you can use your VPN to head over to Hotstar's website to watch replays of matches for free! For more information about using a VPN for India, check out our India VPN guide.

How to pay for an international Cricket service

If you decide to unblock live IPL cricket with a VPN, you may need to pay for Sky Sports, Now TV, Hotstar Disney+, or Willow TV. To do so, you will require a valid payment option for the country you are interested in. 

The good news is that you can easily acquire a virtual card for the country you are interested in online. Simply head over to our article about online virtual cards to sign up for a service and pay for it. As soon as you get your virtual card's number and details, you will be able to use it to sign up for the service you are interested in.

Pay on Fiverr

The good news is that there is one other quick and easy way to pay for Hotstar Disney + outside of India. This will allow you to stream the cricket without actually needing to get a valid Indian payment method yourself!

Indian citizens advertise on Fiverr that they are willing to pay for services on behalf of international users. This is an easy and fast way to pay for a service without actually signing up for a virtual card.

This is reliable and will let you get stuck into streaming Hostar with your VPN subscription as quickly as possible! So check Fiverr for Indian citizens that are advertising this service. 

Watch The IPL With Sky Sports (British Alternative)

The best for watching official UK streams of IPL cricket is to get a subscription to the UK’s Sky Sports to watch the Sky Sports Cricket channel.

Sky Sports has exclusive rights to broadcast IPL cricket in the UK. For anybody living outside of the UK – or any UK residents who happen to be out of the country traveling or on holiday – a VPN is an easy way to gain access to Sky Sports Cricket online.

A Sky Sports subscription costs £38 ($53.29) per month. (That is £20 for the basic Sky entertainment package, plus an additional £18 for the sky sports add-on plan.)

Another easy way to watch Sky Sports is on Now TV. Now TV allows people to watch Sky Sports online. Now TV can be purchased on a daily (£7.99), weekly (14.99), or monthly pass (£33.99). Now TV is also offering a special deal of 40% off for the first two months at the moment.

Stream The IPL on Willow TV (American Alternative)

Another option for watching the Cricket is on the US and Canada service Willow TV.

This channel is dedicated to showing cricket matches from all around the world, including matches played by The International Cricket Council (ICC), The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), The Cricket Australia, Cricket South Africa, West Indies Cricket Board, Sri Lanka Cricket, Bangladesh Cricket Board, Pakistan Cricket Board, and Zimbabwe Cricket.

You can subscribe to Willow TV directly on its website. Simply connect to a VPN server located in the US, navigate to the website, and subscribe for $9.99 per month.

Willow TV is also available on the US-only subscription service Sling TV.

Alternative Options for Streaming IPL Cricket

Here are some other options for watching IPL cricket online. Both of the channels listed have premium paid subscription plans to watch IPL cricket online.

  • SuperSport (South Africa)
  • YuppTV (South East Asia, South America & Europe)

How to set up a VPN for Indian Premier League Cricket

Once you have decided on a VPN, setting it up to watch Indian Premier League Cricket is very easy. Just follow these simple steps:

  1. Select a VPN for IPL cricket. To unblock the cricket, we recommend ExpressVPN because it is secure, fast, and has excellent Indian, UK, and US servers (plus servers in 94 countries for watching cricket).
  2. Click through to the website and subscribe to your favorite IPL cricket VPN. If you want a few more choices, check out our best VPNs for streaming article.
  3. Download and install the VPN software. Remember to get the right version for your devices.
  4. Run the software and select your preferred settings (OpenVPN encryption is recommended).
  5. Select a VPN server where you need it and click Connect.
  6. Navigate to Sky Sports Cricket, Now TV, Hotstar Disney +, WillowTV – or any other service that is streaming IPL cricket online – and subscribe.
  7. That’s it! Your VPN workaround is set up and you are ready to watch the cricket online.

How a VPN for Cricket Works

Cricket fans from all over the world are interested in the Indian Premier League. Unfortunately, very few countries have an official broadcaster for the competition. This is a huge shame because with their diverse teams, and excellent weather, Indian cricket is a pleasure to behold!

If you want to watch any cricket competition that is happening overseas, a VPN is a great investment. By connecting to a server in India you can easily watch local TV streams of IPL. Similarly, at other times of the year, you can connect to a server in the UK, Australia, Sri Lanka – or elsewhere – to watch geo-restricted streams in those locations too!

With a VPN, it becomes super easy to pretend to be in a different country. This is because the VPN conceals your real IP address, replacing it with one in the location that you require.

As a result, you will gain the ability to stream much more cricket than ever before! And, once you have constant access to international cricket competitions, including the Indian Premier League Cricket seasonyou will never look back!

Indian Premier League Fixtures

The IPL is nearing its end with only three matches left in this season. It's been an excellent tournament so far and has brought some normality to our lives in a crazy time. But, it’s not over yet! There is still some incredible cricket matches left in this season. The playoffs will be played this week and the final takes place on Tuesday 10th November.

The Mumbai Indians made it to the final after beating the Delhi Capitals in the first playoff by 57 runs. Both Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan scored over 50 runs as they cruised into the final. This Mumbia Indians look unstoppable at the moment and will be the favourites to win the title this season, if they do it will be their fifth time winning the IPL.

All is not for the Delhi Capitals though. Because they finished second in the table, they will have a second chance to make the final. They will play the winner of the Royal Challengers vs Sunrisers which is played on Friday 6th November. The Sunrisers are favourites to win in their playoff match as they have been in excellent form recently after winning four of their last five matches, but it promises to be a fantastic game of cricket. 

The fixtures left to play and the dates are as follows:

Date Fixture Game Type
6th November Royal Challengers vs Sunrisers Playoff
8th November Captials vs TBD Playoff
10th November Indians vs TBD Final

You can watch all the fixtures above by using a VPN and one of the methods that we mention in this article. 

Watch IPL Cricket Online – Conclusion

No matter whether you decide to watch IPL cricket for free on Hotstar Disney +, or by paying for the UK's Sky Sports Cricket – or the US-only Willow TV service; a VPN for cricket is the perfect solution. With a VPN, you can pretend to be in a different country to watch as much live cricket as you want!

To stream the cricket, we recommend any of the VPN in our 5 best VPNs for streaming article. Those VPNs all have fantastic servers everywhere that you need them for watching the cricket. However, if you want the very best VPN for cricket, we recommend ExpressVPN because it has everything you need to watch IPL and other cricket streams in HD without buffering.

Visit ExpressVPN

Written by: Ray Walsh

Digital privacy expert with 5 years experience testing and reviewing VPNs. He's been quoted in The Express, The Times, The Washington Post, The Register, CNET & many more. 

2 Comments

simarpreet
on April 8, 2018
free on hotstar but how?
https://cdn.proprivacy.com/storage/images/2024/01/douglas-crawfordpng-avatar_image-small.png
Douglas Crawford replied to simarpreet
on April 16, 2018
Hi simarpreet, Just visit the Hotstar website while connected to a VPN server in India. If this doesn't work, you can try disabling geolcation in your browser.

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