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Tag: M S Dhoni

  • BCCI announces team India probable’s for ICC Cricket WC 2015

    BCCI announces team India probable’s for ICC Cricket WC 2015

    MUMBAI: The announcement of India’s probable cricket squad for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 is finally out. And so are some surprises. Cricketers like Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh have failed to make it to the 30 member preliminary list, released by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

     

    Those who figure in the list include; MS Dhoni, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Robin Uthappa, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, Manoj Tiwary, Manish Pandey, Wriddhiman Saha, Sanju Samson, R Ashwin, Parvez Rasool, Karn Sharma, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohd Shami, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny, Mohit Sharma, Ashoke Dinda, Kuldeep Yadav and Murali Vijay.

     

    Well known cricket expert and commentator, Harsha Bhogle took to the micro blogging site twitter, to express his reaction on the development. He tweeted “It means there is a huge churn from the World Cup winning team of 2011. Only four survive in a list of 30!! Dhoni, Ashwin, Raina, Kohli.”

    The national cricket team selector was headed by Sandeep Patil, who made the decision today for the upcoming mega event to be held in Australia and New Zealand. It will be held from February to March. Interestingly the prominent names that did not make it, were part of the winning squad during the World Cup win in 2011.

     

  • Team Squads announced for 2014 Champions League Twenty20

    Team Squads announced for 2014 Champions League Twenty20

    MUMBAI: The squads for the world’s premier Twenty20 competition were announced today and will comprise international cricket’s biggest names along with domestic players.

     

    Eight players scheduled to take part in the competition were in high demand after being named in more than one squad, after their respective Twenty20 clubs from around the world qualified for the tournament.

     

    Explaining the process for deciding which teams these players would represent, CLT20 Governing Council member and director of legal and business affairs Dean Kino said, “Players who have been named by more than one team have been asked to nominate which side they are going to represent. Players are free to make any decision they wish.  Teams are then allowed to replace any player that has withdrawn from their squad and elected to play for another side.”

     

    He added by saying that “CLT20 regulations state that when a player elects to play for their ‘away’ team, that team must pay the ‘home’ team $150,000 compensation per player. A ‘home’ team is classified as a team from the country a player is eligible to represent in international cricket.”

     

    The players and their teams they have chosen to represent are marked in asterisk below:

     

    Corey Anderson –  Northern District Cricket Association /Mumbai Indians*

     

    George Bailey – Hobart Hurricanes / Kings XI Punjab*

     

    Patrick Cummins – Perth Scorchers / Kolkata Knight Riders*

    Jacques Kallis – Cape Cobras / Kolkata Knight Riders*

    Lasith Malinga – Southern Express /Mumbai Indians*

     

    David Miller – Dolphins / Kings XI Punjab*

     

    Kieron Pollard – Barbados Tridents / Mumbai Indians*

     

    Dwayne Smith · Barbados Tridents / Chennai Super Kings*

     

    The tournament will follow a format where a group stage will be preceded by a qualifier. A total of 29 matches will be played in the competition.

     

    The group stage will be played from 17 September to 4 October 2014 and will feature 10 teams. The qualifier will be played from 13 to 16 September 2014.

     

    At the group stage, each side will play the other four in its group once, with the top two sides from each group going through to the semi-finals. In the qualifier, all teams will play each other once, with the top two advancing to the group stage.

     

    The top team from Group A will play the second-ranked team from Group B, and vice versa, in the semi-finals, both of which will be played at Hyderabad on 2 October 2014. Bengaluru will host the final on 4 October 2014.

     

    Group Stage                                                                                

     

    Group A

     

    Kolkata Knight Riders

    Dolphins

    Perth Scorchers

    Chennai Super Kings

    A team from the Qualifier

     

    Group B

     

    Kings XI Punjab

    Cape Cobras

    Hobart Hurricanes

    Barbados Tridents

    A team from the Qualifier

     

    Qualifier

     

    Q1 – Lahore Lions

    Q2 – Mumbai Indians

    Q3 – Northern Knights

    Q4 – Southern Express

     

    The stars participating in this league comprise MS Dhoni, Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina, Glen Maxwell, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Jacques Kallis, Daniel Vettori, JP Duminy, Hashim Amla, Tillekratne Dilshan, George Bailey and Lasith Malinga.

  • Dhoni named brand ambassador to promote BPL

    Dhoni named brand ambassador to promote BPL

    NEW DELHI: Indian skipper M S Dhoni has been appointed brand ambassador to promote Barclays Premier League football (BPL) in India by Star Sports.

    A keen football enthusiast and a Manchester United fan, Dhoni will invite all sports fans to ‘Join the Game‘ in a clutter breaking integrated marketing campaign which will be launched early next week. The campaign will have a strong on-air and digital media thrust.

    This announcement comes on the back of the sports broadcaster announcing the launch of Hindi commentary for the first time on BPL. The Hindi commentary will be in addition to the English commentary and will be available for over 100 live matches across the season.

    Speaking on the occasion, ESPN Software India COO Vijay Rajput said, “We are delighted to have MS Dhoni come on board as the brand ambassador for BPL in the country. We are targeting to expand the fan base of BPL in India by leveraging the iconic power and fan following of MS Dhoni to attract cricket fans to sample BPL – Duniya ka sabse bada league. We want these fans to sample matches of BPL through the eyes of their biggest hero. The core campaign idea is ‘Join the Game‘. The launch of BPL in Hindi is in line with our overall strategy of pushing multi-lingual content. We believe that if you want people to consume a lot of content, you should offer it to them in their language of comfort.”

    The BPL campaign will build on Dhoni‘s love for football. He will invite sports fans in India to ‘Join the Game‘. The campaign has interesting renditions of how Dhoni is always missing from action and is glued to the TV sets watching BPL every weekend while his family and friends run around looking for him.

    Speaking on the association, Dhoni said, “I am an avid BPL fan and I just played out a real situation in front of the camera. If I am not busy with cricket, I am always busy with BPL during week-ends. Football is extremely exciting and very close to my heart. I was a goal keeper during my school days. Even today, I play football as a warm up game ahead of key cricket matches.”

    “I feel that Indian sports fans should consume different types of sports. I want them to be passionate about Cricket as they are, but at the same time one needs to give healthy respect for other disciplines as well. It is critical to spread the message of overall sports development and promotion in the country. This Star Sports initiative to provide football commentary now in Hindi will go a long way in making football exciting to watch and comprehend for new audiences across the nation. Similar efforts should be done to promote other sports as well,” India‘s captain added.

    Star Sports has aggressive production plans for non-live programming on this season of BPL in Hindi. The support of non-live programming through the season will play a key role in educating consumers about the league. The broadcaster plans to showcase highlight shows, weekly show based on ‘goals‘; and a weekly magazine show which will review and preview the latest developments from BPL. The sports channel has started off non-live programming with a six episode build-up show ‘Superstar Football‘ which focuses on multiple facets of the league – famous owners, top clubs, top players etc.

    In football, Star Sports channels hold broadcast rights for Barclays Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, the English FA Cup and England international matches and AFC Events. Star Sports has recently showcased FIFA Confederations Cup 2013.

  • Star launches marketing campaign to build ICC Champions Trophy 2013

    Star launches marketing campaign to build ICC Champions Trophy 2013

    MUMBAI: Star India has launched a marketing campaign, with the core theme of ‘Zor Lagao Champion Banao”, to promote the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 which started today 30 May with warm up matches.

    The event is airing on Star Sports 2 and on Star Cricket. The campaign is based on the insight that there is a symbiotic
    relationship between a spectator or fan and a player which inherently means that the spectator becomes as much a part of the game as the player himself.

    The focus of the campaign is that each match of the tournament in ICC Champions Trophy will be hotly contested as it features only the top eight ODI teams in the world. India, placed in group B, will take on Pakistan, South Africa and West Indies in the group stage. Australia, England, Sri Lanka and New Zealand form group A. The top two teams from both the groups will qualify for the semi-finals.

    ESPN Software India COO Vijay Rajput said, “Cricket is a religion in this country. Fans live and feed off each and every moment of cricket especially when the men in blue are in action. He jumps
    in joy when his favourite batsman hits a boundary; he becomes the ecstatic bowler who has just taken a wicket. The relationship is intense. From the players‘ perspective as well, this intensity is reciprocated as they get equally excited when they receive vociferous support from spectators inside the stadium or outside.”

    The ad agency MWG TAG led by Prasoon Joshi and his team have conceptualised the overall theme campaign. The main thematic film for the campaign has been directed by Bollywood director, Dibakar Banerjee. The film features Indian players including Indian captain M S Dhoni along with Virat Kohli, R Jadeja, R Ashwin, S Raina and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar.

    Joshi said, “The campaign is driven from the insight ‘Kaun banata hai champions?‘ Who makes a player and a game great – the hard work and dedication of the player or the love and passion of the fans? What this campaign believes is that without the love, passion and energy of the fans no player and game can attain great heights. I am thankful to Dibakar for this great execution.”

    The campaign is being supported across the entire Star network with astons, bugs etc.

    As had been reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com Star Cricket & Star Cricket HD will showcase all the 15 matches of the tournament in English while Star Sports 2 will showcase all matches in Hindi.

    Besides, the sports broadcaster will also showcase four of the six
    practice matches branded “Kick-off” live before the start of the main tournament. India takes on Sri Lanka on 1 June while the India Australia encounter is scheduled for 4 June.

  • Aircel to launch PocketBuddies campaign

    BENGALURU: Telcom player Aircel announced the all India launch of a new product ‘PocketBuddies- Srf n txt‘ in Bengaluru. The company plans to back this product with what would probably be its biggest mass media and BTL campaign this year, according to industry sources.

    Since PocketBuddies is a value unlimited surfing and texting plan, the thrust would be on digital, online and social networks combined with television and other mass media communications including radio. The main TG of the campaign will be the youth of India. The campaign will go on for over a 4 to 6 week period and will be rolled out within the next 2-3 weeks.

    Aircel has been spending big money towards branding. It had signed the most expensive sponsorship deal in the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2011 to renew its sponsorship contract with the Chennai Super Kings- Rs 850 million for three years. It had signed on M S Dhoni, the captain of the Indian cricket team, as brand ambassador for a reported Rs 270 million for a three year period, also in 2011.

    Speaking at the launch of PocketBuddies Aircel regional business head Hamir Bakshi said, “Youth has always been the primary focus at Aircel. They are a generation that has seen it all – from television to computers and now smart phones. The youth of today is digital savvy who likes to stay connected with their friends and family and peer groups on a second to second basis, PockeBudies will be received well by them.”

    Aircel also announced registrations for the Aircel College Brand Ambassador – Harvard Business Certification Program which will enable youth to hone their sales and marketing skills. Selected candidates will have to undergo on the job training at Aircel with the successful candidates having the opportunity to qualify for a special Harvard Business Certification Program.

    Aircel also announced the launch of a series of inspirational lectures by eminent speakers representing various industries called ‘Aircel -The Power of Inspiration‘. The series is planned to run over a period of 25 weeks targeting educational institutions present in 25 different cities in India.

  • Post World Cup, Hindi GECs bounce back

    Post World Cup, Hindi GECs bounce back

    MUMBAI: Facing bouncers and googlies from the cricket World Cup, India‘s Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) have regained their old order in the television audience graph in the very first week after Dhoni‘s ‘Men in Blue‘ lifted the ‘Cup that Counts‘.

    The Hindi GECs mopped up 1209 GRPs, after having lost 108 GRPs in the World Cup‘s final week run.

    Star Plus has retained its pole position, after being ousted by Colors briefly for a week with a strategy that involved a cut down in ad inventory.

    Star Plus led the week ended 9 April with 334 GRPs (261 GRPs in previous week), according to Tam data (HSM, 4+, C&S). It added 73 GRPs (gross rating points) and its new 10 pm show, Navya, clocked an average TVR of 3.4 in its debut week.

    Star Plus also aired Star Parivar Awards on 3 April (Sunday), which clocked a TVR of 4.

    Colors lost 51 GRPs and is back to its No. 2 position with 249 GRPs.

    Zee TV, which was hit by the World Cup, added 50 GRPs tp close the week with 221 GRPs.

    The channel launched a new show, Choti Si Zindagi, at the 7 pm band, which got an average opening TVR of 0.9. All its weekday shows saw an increase in viewership and ratings. It also aired two special episodes, which got good numbers.

    Meanwhile, Sony Entertainment Television (Set) regained its No. 4 position by edging out sister channel Sab. Set added 32 GRPs to end the week with 152 GRPs while Sab, after adding 12 GRPs, took its week‘s tally to 139 (from 127 GRPs).

    Imagine TV continues to find the going tough, ending with a 12 GRP loss to collect 58 GRPs during the week (70 GRPs previous week).

    Star One and Sahara One were at 32 and 24 GRPs, according to Tam data.