The Ashes carries history, rivalry and emotion far beyond England and Australia. The ECB wanted daily highlights and press-conference content to reach two of cricket’s most passionate markets in the languages fans use at home. The resulting cricket translation workflow combined speed with specialist context.
The brief
Turn fast-moving English-language video into localised Hindi and Urdu assets suitable for direct publishing. The work needed to be accurate, culturally natural and consistent with cricket terminology, while fitting a recurring highlights schedule.
The workflow
- Receive the official highlights package. The daily source footage enters a defined localisation workflow.
- Transcribe and time. Speech technology creates a rapid first pass for transcription and subtitle timing.
- Cricket-specialist review. Editors check names, match terminology and context before translation.
- Translate with consistency. Translation memory supports the Hindi and Urdu first passes.
- Native in-territory refinement. Cricket-aware linguists refine the language for India and Pakistan.
- Deliver the final video. Localised burned-in subtitle versions go directly into the ECB’s content management system.
Technology built the pace. Cricket specialists protected the meaning.
Why the details matter
Cricket commentary compresses a huge amount of information into a few seconds. Player names, field positions, bowling styles and match situations all change the meaning of a line. A linguist has to understand the passage of play—not just recognise the words.
By combining a fast first pass with specialist review, translation memory and native post-editing, the workflow kept the content moving without treating the sport as generic entertainment.
The result
The ECB received publishable Hindi and Urdu versions of highlights and press content for cricket audiences in India and Pakistan, supplied in a format designed to slot into the existing CMS workflow.