Tag: Men in Blue

SPSN launches ‘The Blue Revolution’ to re-run historic 1985 cricket matches

MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Sports Network (SPSN) will showcase the best moments from the historical 1985 B&H World Championship of cricket tournament that had the Indian cricket team donning the blue jersey, in the series ‘The Blue Revolution’.

The 12-part series revisits India’s landmark victory in the 1985 B&H World Championship of Cricket, the first major tournament India won in coloured clothing and established its dominance in cricket across the globe. The series launches from 4 May at 8.30 pm and will be aired on SONY SIX and SONY SIX HD channels.

SPSN dives into the historical archives to revisit the victorious campaign of the 1985 B&H World Championship of Cricket in ‘The Blue Revolution’ and will showcase how India marked its dominance in cricket, ultimately giving rise to the term ‘Men in Blue’.

Sony Pictures Networks India chief revenue officer, distribution and head – sports business Rajesh Kaul says: “The Blue Revolution covers one of the most iconic moments in our sporting history and commemorates the era where India established its supremacy in the world of Cricket. At that time our World Cup winning team had seen a dip in form, however, they answered all their critics as champions do – by winning the 1985 B&H World Championship of Cricket.”

“The celebrations that ensued with Ravi Shastri and the team in the car as well as on the ground are iconic visuals of our rich cricketing heritage and we are bringing back these memorable games for the Indian cricket fan,” Kaul adds.

As a part of the build-up to the marquee episodes and matches, SPSN has organised a series of live interactive chat sessions with some of the Indian cricket legends and heroes of the unbeaten class of ’85 – Ravi Shastri, Roger Binny, Madan Lal and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan.

The sessions will be hosted by Rajdeep Sardesai and Joy Bhattacharya. TV Today Network consulting editor Rajdeep Sardesai says, “I remember getting up at 5 am in the morning to watch the Indian cricket team perform at the B&H World Championship of Cricket in 1985. Winning the World Cup in 1983 was unexpected but we really proved that we are the best team in the world in 1985.”

“The Blue Revolution series is a must-watch for all for its historical and nostalgic value. I am really looking forward to reliving those moments with some of the heroes of the team who were a part of this landmark endeavour on the official Facebook page of Sony Sports,” says Sardesai.

The World Championship of Cricket was a ‘mini’ World Cup played between seven teams: India, Australia, England, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and West Indies. Before touching down in Australia in 1985, the Indian team had lost three series on the bounce and were one of the least favourites to win the tournament, even after the heroic 1983 World Cup finals win over West Indies.

Led by the astute Sunil Gavaskar, the Indian team donned the Blue Jersey for the first time and went on to beat all teams in the series and eventually winning the finals against arch-rivals Pakistan. Since then, only one colour has been associated with the Indian cricket team and this built the foundation for the ‘The Blue Revolution’.

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May 4, 2020
India’s SF loss in ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 to impact brand visibility in the final

MUMBAI: The ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2019 started off with a lot of hopes pinned on the Indian team to lift the trophy for the third time. Not just international fans but many international experts had the ‘men in blue’ as the likely winners. The tournament was, therefore, quite popular amongst the Indian brands who were advertising heavily during the matches. It was predicted that broadcaster Star India will manage to clock in revenues of around Rs 18,000 crore in the World Cup.

However, India’s loss in the semi-final stage has shattered these hopes and has left the advertisers and the broadcaster in a lurch. It is expected that Star will record a significantly lesser amount in ad revenues in the final stage than expected. However, the greater impact will be on the advertisers who had purchased the ad slots in advance at exorbitant rates of Rs 25 lakh.

Havas Media Group India managing director Mohit Joshi tells Indiantelevision.com that he doesn’t see much impact on the revenues of Star as most of the FCT had been sold already and those deals cannot be revoked. “Some very limited opportunistic FCT that could have been leveraged if India reached the final, might not happen now.”

But the visibility of the brands that had purchased these slots in advance, especially only for the finals and semi-finals will be impacted, he notes. “Everybody bought World Cup with this possibility (India reaching the finals) in mind. The brands have been visible across the tournament. However, if there are some brands who bought only SFs and Finals, their visibility will get impacted.”

Commwiser co-founder and CEO Aman Abbas is of the thought that the brands, which will be buying the remaining FCTs will have to keep in mind the limited audience the match will attract and therefore the reserve inventory which could have generated extra revenue is expected to find a few takers.

“The broadcasters had earned a lot from the advertising in the World Cup, particularly from matches played by team India. An unexpected exit of the Indian team from the tournament is very likely to affect the revenue earned from the advertising for Star Sports and Hotstar. The broadcasters might have sold some of the inventory of the finals beforehand while some of it would have been kept in the reserve, expecting India to reach the finals and generating some extra money from last-minute sales,” he says.

However, Samsika Marketing Consultants CMD Jagdeep Kapoor feels that the interest is very much alive in the finals given India’s obsession with the game of cricket.

He notes, “If people can watch the Wimbledon final, they would surely watch the sport they love, cricket. The momentum of the World Cup is intact. The advertisers will get their money’s worth. In fact, Indian fans will choose a team to cheer in the finals.”

India was stopped short of reaching the finals of the World Cup by New Zealand by 18 runs in an interesting match that spanned across two days because of interruption by rain. A number of advertisers like Kamla Pasand, Lloyd, Pepsi, Dairy Milk, MRF Tyres, BYJU’s were some of the top advertisers during the tournament whose final is scheduled on 14 July 2019 between England and New Zealand.

July 13, 2019
Chatter around India-SA match 30% lower than India/Pak match: MEC report

MUMBAI: Team India so far has been on a winning spree at the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. The winning moments on field have also been translated on social media where fans have expressed their excitement on various platforms.

On 22 February when India won against South Africa the chatter around the match was 30 per cent lower than that of the much talked about India vs Pakistan match, according to a report prepared by MEC.

The report states that the hashtag #IndvsSA garnered only 0.2 million mentions as compared to the hashtag #IndvsPak at 0.3 million mentions. Further another hashtag, #cwc15, garnered 0.1 million mentions for both the matches.

Shikhar Dhawan was the most talked about player during the India vs South Africa match, but received almost half the mentions as compared to Virat Kohli during India’s clash against Pakistan.

Sports brand Nike’s “#bleedblue” campaign continued to be the most talked about brand mention, but received only 40 per cent mentions compared to that during India and Pakistan’s match. Official broadcaster Star Sports campaign #Maukamauka gained talk value during India vs South Africa with their new TVCs says the report.

In its concluding remarks the report states that it is clear that no match generates as much excitement and engagement as an India vs Pakistan match.

February 24, 2015
Social media: An alternate playground for World Cup 2015

MUMBAI: While Australia and New Zealand are the epicentre of the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook too are planning to make the most of the event by not only introducing a host of innovations but also seeing a number of mentions on these platforms.

Since sports is the ultimate real-time experience, fans on Twitter are getting live updates from their favourite teams, players, coaches, writers, celebrities and fellow fans.

For these reasons, the micro blogging site has created a special Cricket World Cup 2015 timeline called as #CWC15 timeline. According to twitter the most followed players from each of the 14 countries are Mohammad Nabi of Afghanistan, Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh, Virat Kohli of India, Ross Taylor of New Zealand, Michael Clarke of Australia, Kyle Coetzer of Scotland and Stuart Broad of England. From team Ireland Kevin O’Brien is the most followed from the country and from team South Africa AB De Villiers is the most followed on twitter.

Kumar Sangakara is the most followed cricketer from the island country while Shahid Afridi has made it to the list from neighbouring Pakistan. Chris Gayle is the most followed from West Indies while Brendan Taylor is the most followed from Zimbabwe.

The micro blogging site has also come up with a twitter dream team. This dream team is composed of the most-mentioned players on the site over the past 12 months, forming a first XI. Those who made to the coveted list are Ahmed Shehzad of Pakistan, Virat Kohli of India, Younis Khan of Pakistan, M S Dhoni from India, Mitchell Johnson from Australia, James Anderson and Stuart Broad from England, Shahid Afridi from Pakistan, Moeen Ali from England, Michael Clarke from Australia and Rohit Sharma from India.

With the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Twitter partnering for the World Cup, the cricket body’s account provides access to the players, and it’s where they will be posting photos, videos and breaking news from inside the camp of the Men in Blue.

Speaking about the same, Twitter India and Southeast Asia market director Rishi Jaitly says, “In India, Twitter is focused on reaching every person with a mobile phone and this product is in service of that goal. We applaud the BCCI for taking the initiative to make it even more accessible for fans to stay in touch with the latest on Indian cricket.”

Twitter has also introduced digital innovations for the coveted tournament. For instance it has come up with a daily recap video on the native video player. If one has missed any of the live action, ICC will send a native video tweet at the end of every match day. This is exclusive to people following the account and will have some of the best action from the game and expert views. The five minute show will go out each evening showcasing each key element of that day’s match.

Meanwhile digital service provider ‘TO THE NEW’ has come up with some trends it picked up during India’s clash against Pakistan, where the neighbouring country were thrashed bitterly by the Men in Blue. According to the report, the most number of tweets came from India (74.5 per cent), Pakistan ( 5.8 per cent ), Saudi Arabia (4.4 per cent), USA (4.3 per cent) and UK (2.8 per cent) while that of the other countries put together stood at 8.1 per cent.

The report further states that 79 per cent of the tweets were by males while females made up for 21 per cent of the tweets during the match.

According to Twitter India, there were a total of 118.3 million live tweet impressions during the clash of the titans. The top three tweets per minute were when India became victorious by 76 runs (9,987 tweets per minute ). Two, when Virat Kohli scored a top notch century (7,159 tweets per minute) and when Kohli was dismissed by 107 runs (6,916 tweets per minute).

The report also states that the most mentioned players from India were Virat Kohli, M S Dhoni, and Suresh Raina. From Pakistan Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, and Sohail Khan made it to the list.

Facebook too has become an alternate stadium for the World Cup. Globally nine million people had 25 million interactions about India’s victory over Pakistan. One can join the conversation by posting about the match one is watching by tapping the smiley icon before one shares a post, select the option “watching” and choose the specific match.

Through a “Weekly Corner with Cricket Legends,” it has come up with a six part video Q&A series with some of the world’s leading cricketers. For this one will hav e to keep an eye on the ICC Cricket World Cup page each Monday to see interviews with Shane Warne, Yuvraj Singh, and more. Fans can also find in match highlights on the Star Sports’ Facebook page.

The Facebook blog post can be accessed here: http://media.fb.com/2015/02/16/the-cricket-world-cup-on-facebook/

Cricket on Facebook

Indian Cricket Team

Star Sports India

ICC Cricket World Cup page

ESPN Cricinfo

Aaj Tak, Headlines Today, India Today

CNN-IBN, IBN7

SKY Sport NZ

FOX Sports Australia

Liv your fame

Being Indian Channel

BigFM Radio

February 17, 2015
India is now number-one ranked ODI side

MUMBAI: World champion India has been confirmed as the number-one ranked side in the Reliance ICC ODI team rankings after Zimbabwe’s three wickets victory over Australia during the triangular series match in Harare held on Sunday.

India had joined Australia on top of the table after winning the third ODI in Nottingham on 30 August with 114 ratings points, but took sole possession at the coveted number-one spot after Zimbabwe recorded its first victory over Australia in 31 years. This result meant Australia dropping three rating points and slipping behind South Africa and Sri Lanka into fourth position with 111 ratings points.

South Africa, following its victories over Australia and Zimbabwe, is sitting in second spot with 113 ratings points, while Sri Lanka also has 111 ratings points but is ranked above Australia in third position by a fraction of a point.

With five ODIs to be played this week, there is potential for further changes at the top of the table, depending how these matches pan out.

For world champion India to finish as the number-one ranked side, it needs to win the remaining two matches against England and then hope Australia beats South Africa either on 2 September or 6 September (if both the sides clash in the final). In this scenario, India will be on 115 ratings points, followed by South Africa, Australia and Sri Lanka (depending on the outcome of the remaining matches in the triangular series).

South Africa, which also leads the Reliance ICC Test Team Championship, can move to the top of the table if it wins its remaining two league matches as well as the potential final against Australia. If South Africa makes this happen and India also wins its last two matches, then South Africa and India will be on 115 ratings points each but South Africa will be ranked above India when the ratings are calculated beyond the decimal point.

Australia may have slipped to fourth position but it too can finish the series in number-one position if England beats India in one of the two matches and Australia defeats South Africa on 2 September and then again in the final on 6 September. In this scenario, Australia will end up on 114 ratings points, followed by India in second position, and Sri Lanka and South Africa in third and fourth spots, respectively.

Forthcoming matches are as follows:

2 September – Australia vs South Africa at Harare

2 September – Fourth ODI, England vs India at Birmingham

4 September – Zimbabwe vs South Africa at Harare

5 September – Fifth ODI, England vs India at Leeds

6 September – Final. Triangular series at Harare

The Reliance ICC ODI Team Rankings (as on 31 August, after Zimbabwe-Australia ODI) is given below.

Rank   Team              Rating

1          India                114

2          South Africa      113

3          Sri Lanka          111

4          Australia            111

5          England             106

6          Pakistan           100

7          New Zealand      98

8          West Indies         96

9          Bangladesh         69

10        Zimbabwe           58

11        Afghanistan         42

12        Ireland                33

September 1, 2014