Tag: Sachin

Sachin, Sehwag to open for India again

MUMBAI: Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar, one of the most fearsome opening batsman of all time Virender Sehwag, the legendary West Indian Brian Lara, lethal Aussie speedster Bret Lee, one of Sri Lanka’s most stylish and dependable batsman of all time Tillakaratne Dilshan and the one and only, who took fielding in cricket to a different level, Jonty Rhodes, all come together once again to enthral us with their cricketing brilliance when they lock horns for the Road Safety World Series scheduled to be held in India early next year.

The Road Safety World Series will be an annual T20 cricket tournament between legends of five cricket playing nations—Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and host India. Along with great rivalry and fierce competition, the cricketers will also spread the message of road safety during this League. The tournament will be played from 4th February to 16th February 2020, and will be hosted across premier venues in India.

Little Master Sunil Gavaskar is the Commissioner and Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar is the Brand Ambassador of the League. Viacom18’s Colors Cineplex is the broadcast partner while VOOT and Jio are the digital partners. The popular platform Tik Tok is coming on board as the Online Community Partner of the League.

The aim of the Road Safety World Series is to drive social change in the country and change people’s outlook towards road safety. As cricket is the most followed sport in the country and cricketers are looked upon as idols by many, this League will work as an ideal platform to influence and change people’s mind set towards their behaviour on the roads.

Apart from the legendary cricketers, Melroy D’Souza, COO, Professional Management Group (PMG); Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO & MD, Viacom18; Nitin Saluja, Director Public Policy Programs, TikTok India and Ravi Gaikwad, RTO Chief of Thane (Konkan Range) who is also a senior member of the Road Safety Cell of Maharashtra, were also present during the launch of this T20 extravaganza which has all the making of a big-ticket event in India’s sporting calendar. A portion of the profits gained during this league will go to Shant Bharat Surakshit Bharat, a charitable trust whose main objective is to promote the cause of road safety in the country.

Mr. Gaikwad, who was a H. Sc. state topper and scientist before joining RTO said, “One things that runs very deeply in every Indians DNA is cricket. The reach of this game and the following of its stars are phenomenal and that is what we want to do, spread the message across through this game which is so close to everyone in this country. The Road Safety World Series is not just a cricket tournament but a platform to achieve a much greater goal towards humanity as a whole. It is perhaps divine intervention that has brought all of us together to create the Road Safety World Series where we will see all those legends in action whom we had started to miss in the last few years. I am sure, we all, who are here together today to make this happen, will one day be very proud of what we have achieved for ourselves and for our future generations. I know people look at sports as a form of entertainment, but if sports is played only for entertainment purpose, the Olympic movement and its glorious narrative will not have any meaning. I welcome you all to experience this unique journey where we will not only be creating memories but spearheading a movement to save more lives on Indian roads.”

Brand Ambassador of the League, Sachin Tendulkar said, “People in India loves cricket and we are blessed to be playing the sport. The love and affection showered by one and all towards cricket and cricketers is too fulfilling to express in words. I have been regularly talking about the importance of following traffic rules and driving safely, and the platform of Road Safety World Series feels like a full circle. I am really happy to be a part of this league which not only gives the stalwarts of the cricket world a chance to come back but also an opportunity for all of us to give something back to the society through this beautiful game.”

Speaking about the Road Safety World Series, Melroy said, “We are very excited about using cricket as a platform to promote road safety. The tournament will give an opportunity for the fans to see their idols, back in action, a chance which I think all of them will cherish. It will give some of the greatest cricketers of all time, an opportunity to pit their wits and skills against each other, all over again.”

Speaking about the partnership for Road Safety World Series, Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO and MD, Viacom18 said: “We have always believed that entertainment has the potential to bring about meaningful change and what better way of practising this philosophy than to bring cricketing legends in the popular T20 format to spread the message of road safety. An annual tourney spread over two weeks, I believe this league has the right balance of fandom, brevity and consumer connect to make this a viable long-term proposition – both in terms of sporting and business value. We are happy to partner with PMG and Road Safety Cell of Maharashtra Govt. to bring forth this cricketing tournament to viewers across the world.”

Leading short view platform, TikTok has also extended its support to the campaign as Online Community Partners. As part of this partnership, the TikTok campaign #RoadSafetyChamps will launch go live on the platform in the lead up to the tournament in February 2019.

“In line with our commitment towards the safety of our users, we are excited to partner with Road Safety World Series. As part of our ongoing safety initiatives, we’ve launched several consumer education programs in the past. Through this partnership we look forward to extending support by spreading the message of road safety through TikTok,” Nitin Saluja – Director Public Policy Programs, TikTok India.

WHY ROAD SAFETY?

Every year India kills a decent size European nation on its roads. In India, one person dies in every four minutes. Every hundred people dying in the world, 30 are Indians. It is more alarming that as per the World Research Institute, by 2020, the death toll in road accidents every year will reach up to 2.2 million and 50 per cent will be Indians. Every year around 1,50,000 people are killed and more than 4,50,000 people are critically injured in our country in road accidents.

October 17, 2019
Kapil Dev on ABP News: How Indian cricket team can become number one across all formats

MUMBAI: Legendary all-rounder and 1983 World Cup captain Kapil Dev, in an exclusive chat with ABP News, spoke on how the present Indian cricket team can become number one across all formats and shared his thoughts on Virat Kohli, his captaincy and MS Dhoni. Kapil Dev will share his cricketing insights regularly on ABP News on every match day starting with the T20 series against Australia beginning tomorrow.

The first episode with Kapil will be telecast on ABP News on Friday, 9 pm.

In an exclusive chat with ABP News, Kapil praised skipper Virat Kohli for setting new benchmarks in international cricket and says his decisions have changed the face of world cricket. “Virat has a got a new fuel to fire this Indian team to the top. And that fuel is fitness. He has taken fitness levels to a different level and his strictness for fitness, for himself and for ever member to get into the team, means he has given a new definition term and is forcing world over to change perception about fitness in cricket.

Kapil says: “Cricket is always considered a skill-based game but let me tell you that skills can only be used well if you have the fitness. Every captain comes in with his own thought and what he requires from his players. Virat has made it clear what he requires from his team. He wants the fittest players, and let me tell you that is how cricket will be played in future. Virat is changing the face of how cricket will be played in years to come. You need to be fit to dominate In the last 50 years, fitness of player was in doubt, but now Virat has changed it all. He has made it clear that if you are not fit you cannot play for the country. Yuvraj and Raina can still big sixes but if they are not fit as per the standards which this Indian team demands, Virat has made it clear even big players are not assured of a spot. The challenge is now for Yuvraj and Raina to come up to the standards which the team demands from them.”

In football, every player does not score a goal but you need several people to take the ball near the goal. Similarly in cricket every player cannot get a 100 but the 40s and 50s are equally important. In this team, we have a player who can set up a match well and also win matches single-handedly. If you ask me who is the backbone of this team, I will not say it is the captain but for me the Backbone of this team is MS Dhoni. The kind of experience which he has is phenomenal. Anybody can have a say on how he used to play and how he is playing now and that he has changed his game but for any player who has played 300 ODIs and has an average of 50 we do not even have the right to talk about him. If your team is number 1, it is because you have a player like Dhoni in the team.

The former Indian skipper felt that this Indian team has the potential to become No.1 across all three formats. Kapil feels it is ready to dominate the cricketing world, and isn’t No.1 just like that.“If we look at our team and compare it with other teams in the world, then i can say with assurance that this team has an X factor. That this team has all ingredients to become the world no.1 team. There is no doubt in my mind with regards to that…because for the first time we have seen that the Indian team may not have the so-called big name players lime Sachin, sourav, Laxman, Sehwag… still this team is winning. To become a big player like them you need to give them time… and I can say that they will all be big names in some years..some of them already are. In the recent series we saw first-choice players like Rahul or Shikhar or any fast bowler or spinner, even when they are not in the eleven, the reserves come in and they win you matches. That means Indian team doesn’t just have 12-15 players but 20-25 players who are all good and ready to win you games in any format. And that is the big positive,” says Kapil.

October 6, 2017
A Boost to #PlayABiggerGame with Virat

MUMBAI: Boost, one of GSK’s leading brands in the Health Food Drinks category, has launched a three-part digital video campaign with the youth icon Virat Kohli. With this campaign, the brand intends to take its theme of ‘Play A Bigger Game’ beyond an inspiring message to actually providing kids with an opportunity to prepare to ‘Play A Bigger Game’ by learning it from Virat himself.

The video features Virat Kohli preparing a young kid to play a bigger game in his own unique style. This is one of first set of long form branded digital series created exclusively for kids. The videos are about how Virat coaches a young kid in his own unique & unconventional ways & helps him prepare to #playabiggergame. Boost plans to drive over 10Mn+ views for the #playabiggergame campaign by promoting it across popular digital platforms of YouTube, Facebook & Gaming Apps.

GSK Consumer Healthcare EVP marketing Prashant Pandey said, “Boost’s energy proposition has been evolving with the times and made to come alive through a great mix of innovative and experience-driven marketing. Last year we had launched a new communication platform called ‘Play A Bigger Game’, in line with the brand purpose of ‘Unleashing the winner in you (kids)’. This platform has worked brilliantly for us in terms of connecting with the core TG of 8-12-year-old kids leading to the best-ever business results. We feel that the platform is so powerful that it can transcend across touch-points to connect with kids across multiple touch-points that are of interest to them.”

He further added, “Through our integrated approach module, our creative agency JWT came up with an idea that takes the leverages the platform of Play A Bigger Game to actually help kids prepare to Play A Bigger Game. Hence, we decided to launch the first ever branded digital series with Virat Kohli to engage with kids. The digital trilogy showcases how Virat coaches a young kid in his own unique ways & helps him prepare to Play A Bigger Game.”

He also said, “as part of the campaign, Boost is also calling out kids to share their videos of practice & WIN a chance to train with Virat himself. This is one of the biggest digital campaigns in GSK CH India that aims to connect with consumers through a medium (digital) & genre (long form digital video) that provides the strongest scope of engagement with them. We are confident that this will help in a big way in strengthening the love for Boost amongst kids.”

Kohli said, “Right since I was a kid, Boost, led by stalwarts like Kapil Dev, Sachin, MS Dhoni, has always been a brand that has inspired kids to unleash the winner in themselves. I have been associated with Boost for over 4 years now & elated that the baton is with me now to continue this journey of inspiring kids to unleash the winner in themselves. The new campaign of #playabiggergame aims to take this journey forward by helping kids on how to prepare for playing big & winning big.”

Link to the three-part digital video series-

Part-1: #playabiggergame
Part 2: #playabiggergame
Part 3: #playabiggergame

April 25, 2017
CFL derby’s lofty ratings defies urge to merge domestic leagues

MUMBAI: The outpour of ecstasy and glamour in the first edition of Indian Super League (ISL) easily outclassed the other existing Football leagues in India. Subsequently, pundits and authorities began debating if other leagues should stay or be merged into one.

Silencing all cynics are the ratings of the Calcutta Football League (CFL) derby match between Mohun Bagan FC VS East Bengal. Aired on Star India’s regional channel Star Jalsha, the derby match garnered highest ever ratings for a CFL match.

Approximately 82,000 spectators were at the edge of their seats in the stadium for the match’s entire 90 minutes duration, while 16.3 lakh people tuned in to Star Jalsha to watch it live. The average time spent was a whopping 58.4 minutes. The match garnered a rating of 4.45 per cent in NCCS 4+, in M 15+ ABC marker the match clocked six per cent ratings while the reach garnered is 10.2 per cent in NCCS 4+.

Star India gives much importance to the production quality and that’s one of the reasons why ratings are going up. “I believe that the ratings will go even higher the next time,” says Grey Mind productions founder Anilava Chatterjee. “We deployed 14 cameras this year and we are improving the production quality every match thanks to Star. The quality of football is getting better. Overall, the league has a great future,” he adds.

A football commentator, on condition of anonymity, said, “I have no doubt that the domestic leagues in India in some regions have more fan following than ISL. Sports now is a matter of packaging and Star is a master in that. That’s why ISL looks so colourful. Spend the same amount of money in local football and that will also look glamorous. From a football follower’s perspective, I feel India needs both and a merger can turn out to be a debacle.”

“Local football has potential of revenue generation if and only if it is packaged properly. Also the domestic leagues can be of huge benefit for broadcasters as the acquisition costs are low. Now it’s for IMG and the authority to decide if a merger is the solution,” added a veteran in media selling fraternity.

Football in India has failed to attract the youth and one of the main reasons behind it is lack of ideologies. Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly has often made a point at various public gatherings, “Youth in the country, while growing up wants to be like Gavaskar, Sachin and Dravid. When they will have idols in football, the sport will grow enormously.”

Recently former India football skipper Baichung Bhutia also expressed his disagreement on a merger. Now it remains to be seen if high ratings saves the domestic leagues from getting diminished.

September 20, 2015
Kolkata advertisement industry cashes in on Sachin frenzy

KOLKATA: As Sachin Tendulakar got ready to draw the curtains on his glorious international Test cricket career of 24-years, the fervor started building up. And the people who gained the most from this fan frenzy are the advertisers in the City of Joy, who have increased the ad rates by approximately 30 per cent according to analysts.

Interestingly, companies like Allahabad Bank, Century Ply, Exide, Hero, Rupa, Pincon, Ultra Tech Cement among others didn’t have an issue to cough up extra for the cricketer’s 199th match that kicked off at the Eden Garden on Wednesday.
According to sources, Kolkata-based advertising company Sporting Frontier has charged around Rs 30 lakh for a package that includes two billboards and site-screen.

“Advertisers did not mind in coughing up the extra amount being demanded,” said analysts, who think that the interest of the advertising fraternity around the event has been really high.

Arun Sign Service director Ashif Kumar Biswas, said that it may be not be a very good time for the advertising industry but since the viewership has shot up drastically, companies are ready to spend extra. “However, ad rates are generally higher for cricket matches,” he added.

And it’s not just the advertisers, many others too have benefitted from this interest-driven event. Arun Sign Service signed a deal with the Kolkata Police and the Cricket Association of Bengal to put up directional and way-finding signage and road direction campaign in and around Eden Gardens.

Sources have confirmed that for the 50 signage that the company has put up, they have charged Rs 20 lakhs.

Since the analysts believe that Sachin’s last competitive Test match in Kolkata has the same appeal as a world cup match with India in the finals, advertisers in Kolkata have not negotiated much. It seems when it comes to Sachin, money isn’t a big concern

Biswas recalls the condition of Out of Home advertising in Kolkata a few months ago. Most of the billboards were just white spaces with telephone numbers, he said. “The advertising industry suffered because of the subdued economy. Usually, with the onset of the festive season, Kolkata’s advertising business awaits new opportunities. But it wasn’t the same this year,” said Biswas, also bringing to fore how as compared to last year, the clients this time reduced their ad spends by more than 40 per cent because of weak economy.

November 8, 2013
Star readies for Sachin mania; hopes to create world record

MUMBAI: Come 14 November and that will be the time when Cricket fans world over will be glued to their TV sets to witness “the little master” wield his bat for the Indian cricket team one last time at his home ground in Mumbai – Wankhede stadium.

This will mark the end of Sachin Tendulkar’s 24 year long career in the great sport of Cricket. Once Tendulkar had requested the BCCI to play his last competitive game at his home ground, the decision with regard to his farewell Test – also his 200th – was a mere formality earlier this month. As a result, the Cricket Association of Bengal, which had been promised Tendulkar’s 200th before he announced his decision to retire after the Test, was awarded with Tendulkar’s penultimate Test.

Star India has launched a unique campaign ‘Cheer for Sachin’ to pay tribute to arguably the best cricketer in the world as he gets ready to play the series against the West Indies early next month. The broadcaster is targeting to break the world record for maximum ‘Cheers’ garnered by any campaign ever across the world. Star India has invited Sachin’s fans to cheer “Sachin-Sachin” and break the world record for a hero who has always broken records for India! And the cheer will be played on the broadcast network (Star Sports) as a tribute for the hero.

The Participants may register his/her telephone number to participate in the activity by calling the number, 505782717, which is valid on Vodafone (Rs 6.00/min), Airtel (Rs 6.00/min), Tata Indicom (Rs 6.00/min), Idea (Rs 6.99/min), Reliance (Rs 6.00/min), BSNL (Mobiles) (Rs 5.00/min) and BSNL (Landline) (Rs 2.40/min) telephone networks only.

According to the terms and conditions given on starsports.com – The activity opened from 25 October 2013 at 00:00 hours (IST) and will end on 19 November 2013 at 00:00 hours (IST), or on such other dates and times as shall be indicated by ESPN Star Sports India. No entries from before or after the activity period will be accepted.

The response has been very encouraging with stars from Bollywood, Cricket as well as TV recording their cheers. Stars like Priyanka Chopra, Prosenjit Chaterjee, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, Wasim Akram, Rameez Raza and protagonists from the leading serials on Star Plus like Diya Aur Baati Hum and Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai have already recorded their cheers. The broadcaster has also reached out to Sudhir Kumar Chaudhary (The guy who is often seen in the stadiums in body paint cheering for Sachin) – regarded by many as the biggest Sachin fan to record a special cheer for this campaign.

Speaking on the occasion, Star India EVP – marketing and communications Gayatri Yadav says: “For 24 years, the legend has stood for a billion…and now it’s time for a billion to stand for one. It’s our time to cheer for the little master. We are honoured that Sachin’s farewell series will be played on our network. Our philosophy has been to take fans closer to their heroes because as the official broadcasters we play the critical role of an enabler. We are extending the invitation to all Sachin fans through this campaign to come out and thank the little master for a wonderful career in which he took Indian cricket to newer heights.”

Yadav adds: “We are aiming for the World Record. Sachin has made innumerable records during his memorable career; it’s time that his fans make this record as a grand tribute. We believe there cannot be a bigger opportunity for Sachin fans to show support and be a part of history in making as he gets ready for one last time to play for India.”

The campaign will run across the Star Sports network as well as Star India network of channels. There will be huge focus on the digital media as well to aggregate all fans for the campaign. The official Facebook and Twitter pages of Star Sports has been buzzing with fans commenting and posting nostalgic moments from the “little master’s past”. The Star Sports website has also created a separate section dedicated to Sachin on his 24 year long journey in Cricket for India.

Star India will donate its share of proceeds from the incoming call revenues to an NGO for sports development amongst youth. (As a norm the telcos in India normally share revenues with their partners in a 60:40 or 70:30 ratios. The estimated figure for the donations going towards the NGO could well be running into a few million rupees)

Star India is pulling out all the stops to make the India West Indies series memorable. Additionally, the broadcaster will use a special FanCam enabling fans to say “I was there” as they enjoy the historic moment.

The Fan Cam is capable of generating 360 degree extremely high resolution photo of the stadium therefore each and every fan who will be fortunate to be at the stadium on any of the Test match days will be able to zoom into his picture and keep this memory with him for posterity.

On the programming front, a 10 part documentary series will be dedicated to Sachin – Sachin Ka Safar and The Sachin Journey in Hindi and English language respectively which will be telecast in the month of November. There will be a live show on Sachin – Sachiiiiiiin… Sachin – that will be telecast during the series. A special 24 segment series Sachin Years will also be showcased in the run-up to the historic series. A segment will be dedicated to each of Sachin’s 24 years of international cricket.

October 30, 2013
Sachin, Basu Chatterjee mourn A K Hangal’s death

MUMBAI: The month of August has been really very bad for the film industry with several film stalwarts like Dara Singh, Rajesh Khanna and now A K Hangal passing away to eternity.

Having started in films with the Hindi adaptation of Nobel laurette Rabindranath Tagore‘s story ‘Post Office‘ titled Dakghar was back in the 60s, he went on to do more than 100 films, notable among them being his role as Ram Shastri in Aaina (1977), Inder Sen in Shaukeen, as Bipinlal Pandey in Namak Haraam, as Imaam Sa‘ab in Sholay and as Anokhelal in Manzil among others. Incidentally, he was the only character actor who did 17 films with the late Rajesh Khanna.

Reminisces actor-director Sachin, who played Ahmed to Hangal‘s Imaam Saheb, “The industry is indeed grieved at the passing away of Hangal saab as we dearly called him. His memory becomes all the more important to me because he started his career with me and Balraj Sahni in the Zul Vellani-directed children‘s film Dakghar in 1965.

Besides his association with IPTA then, he was actively involved in patriotism-related activities. It was for this, that the government of India conferred the Padma Bhushan to him in 2006. Known for his subtle performances, Hangal saab was loved by one and all.

After a long time, we both had the occasion of working together again in the Rajesh Khanna-Shabana Azmi film Avatar in which we both had important roles. Then we did Sholay together but after that I had no chance to work with him.

Once, I remember when he was reminiscing about his past, I asked him, “Hanagl saab, people know you as A K Hangal, but please tell what does A and K mean. That is when he said, “My name is Avtar Kishan Hangal.” With his demise, we have not only lost a great actor but also a good human being. May his soul rest in peace.”

If one may remember, Hangal played one of the three elderly gentlemen who decide to go away to Goa for a while to have some enjoyment in their late lifetime in Basu Chatterjee‘s 1982 film Shaukeen. While in Goa, the three men get in hilarious situations with Rati (Agnihotri) as they try to impress her and try to get lucky with her.

It was a kind of an offbeat role for Hangal saab and that too with seasoned artistes like Ashok Kumar and Utpal Dutt. Remembers Basu Chatterjee, “Never did he feel out of place acting with the two veterans and never did the two allowed him to feel out of place. All the three gelled as a unit and acting wise, all the three performed equally well.

Hangal saab was a versatile actor who did a variety of roles. He did many films with me. Hangal saab was very dear to me because it was me along with Basu Bhattacharya who picked him up from his tailoring shop in Crawford Market somewhere in 1862-63.

But it was a pity that the funeral of Hagal saab was barely attended by industry bigwigs. Hangal saab must have moaned from his pyre, “Itna sannata kyon hain bhai.”

Character actor AK Hangal, who had the rare ability to imbue the smallest and the most ordinary of roles with quality and dignity, passed away at a private hospital in Santa Cruz, Mumbai following health complications caused by a recent hip fracture. “He was not keeping well for quite some time,” his son Vijay told a news agency. He was 98.

Even in a crowded multi-starrer like ‘Sholay‘ (1975), Hangal‘s cameo of the blind Rahim chacha stood out. Many still remember his dialogue, Yeh itna sannata kyun hai bhai. His emotional speech, on learning that his son has been killed by the dacoits, is among the most moving moments in the film.

“He was a brilliant and versatile actor who could modulate his voice very effectively,” says director Basu Chatterjee, who gave the Sialkot-born actor his most shaded roles in films such as ‘Manzil‘ (1979) and ‘Shaukeen‘ (1982). In Manzil, Hangal played a suave crook and in Shaukeen, he was one of the three lecherous old men out to have adult fun. With his death, all the three protagonists- Ashok Kumar and Utpal Dutt being the other two – in the film are gone.

Recalls director Rahul Rawail, for whom Hangal acted in ‘Arjun‘ (1985) and ‘Dacait‘ (1987),” “He had a complex role in Arjun, where he played Sunny Deol‘s father. But he was brilliant in the role of a man in conflict amidst a rebellious son and a domineering wife.”

Hangal was 50 plus when he made his Hindi film debut playing the brief role of Raj Kapoor‘s elder brother in ‘Teesri Kasam‘ (1966). Another early role was that of a ruthless businessman who wants to build multi-storeys over jhuggi-jhopris and tries to lure a journalist to join his fold in KA Abbas‘ ‘Bambai Raat Ki Bahon Mein‘ (1967).

His best roles happened in the 1970s and 1980s when the actor was a regular fixture in dozens of movies. He played some of his more distinctly-etched characters in Hrishikesh Mukherjee movies such as ‘Bawarchi‘ (1972) where he played a clerk with a weakness for the evening tipple and ‘Namak Haraam‘ (1974) where he was an honest trade unionist. The actor is survived by his only son, Vijay.

August 27, 2012
2011 will be a challenging year for Indian sports biz -Broadreach Media director Peter Hutton

2010, the year of the tweet, comes to a close with Indian sport in much better shape for the New Year, with the Commonwealth Games leaving behind a legacy of completed stadia and some rather more cautious administrators. Add Delhi‘s new monuments to the vision, or something, of Suresh Kalmadi to the opening of the new Grand Prix track and the investments in cricket facilities across the country, and the overall picture for the infrastructure of Indian sport looks much more optimistic.

Though stadium builders have been busy, sporting performance has not been as consistent despite the abundance of talent available. The Indian cricket team has gone into a series of tournaments with one hand tied behind their back as the board continually “rotate” their tired squad. That rotation has lowered television ratings of the bilateral tours with advertisers understandably preferring to bet on the quality of the ICC events and the bigger series against Australia and South Africa rather than gamble on the questionable selections for tours to Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and the rest. A tour without Sachin, Dhoni and Harbajan is not an easy sell.

The form on the pitch also affects the returns of the broadcasters, even if most tours are largely pre-sold. The three Indian cricketing high points for 2010 all came on Neo Sports, the home test series against Australia with its terrific finish in Mohali, the win in the Asia Cup and a home victory in January against South Africa.

The disappointments were spread between the broadcasters, Neo‘s home ODI series with Australia suffering from poor weather, while on Ten Sports India lost twice to the home side and failed to make the final of the triangular in Zimbabwe, then again lost a triangular in Sri Lanka (winning only 2 of 5 games) and the biggest disappointment of all, the struggles on Star Cricket in the ICC‘s T20 tournament when India lost to Sri Lanka, West Indies and Australia.

Away from national team cricket, ESPN Star Sports gambled on an expensive marketing campaign to breathe life into the Champions League and were rewarded with much improved ratings, though the initial billion dollar price tag still dominates the industry perception of the event as over-priced.

The IPL managed to squeeze in yet more commercial content with mid-over advertising breaks. It would be nice to think that those forced breaks will go the way of the televised post game parties come the new IPL season in April.

This year‘s tournament is going to be very keenly watched by the industry, potentially overshadowed by the World Cup that immediately precedes it and, of course, missing its chief cheerleader. IPL life without Lalit will never be the same, but the world’s most remarkable sporting story of the last decade is one that the BCCI tamper with at their peril.

The ratings game for 2011 will be an interesting battle with ESPN Star Sports having the upper hand in terms of year round events. They have the cricket World Cup through February and March, then India‘s prime time tour to England in the Summer, the Champions League in September as well as the mouthwatering prospect of India in Australia in December.

Ten Cricket has what should be an excellent ODI series of India in South Africa in January, then India in West Indies in May, while Neo has a long period away from the limelight before India‘s home series against England and the West Indies dominating October to December. Centre of attention for Neo will be the much awaited IPO rather than their cricket content in 2011.

There‘s plenty of interest off the pitch in the next year for the industry, with virtually all the cricket boards set to go to market for the next five years of television rights sales. Neo enters this negotiation period with the advantage of having the Indian home rights all secured already and ESPN Star Sports secure in their long term deals with the ICC and the Champions League.

As a result, the focus of attention will be the other nine national team boards. Some of the existing deals end in 2012, some in 2013, but the next 12 months will be key in determining where the bulk of cricket content will end up with some negotiations already underway.

Of the nine boards coming up for grabs, Ten currently holds five (Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, West Indies, Zimbabwe), ESPN Star Sports two (England and Australia), Neo one (Bangladesh) and Sony one (New Zealand). For each broadcaster there is the challenge of judging the valuation trend of bilateral cricket as that trend underpins the price that they‘ll be prepared to pay.

Though competition between broadcasters will no doubt help keep the prices up for the various boards, the advertising money is suffering a “flight to quality” with a concentration on the prime time Indian tours, the ICC events, the IPL and the Champions League.

The ICC, Champions League and IPL events effectively have a secure “window” (even if the IPL‘s is not official) where no other cricket fights for viewers’ attention. As a result the remainder of the international cricket calendar is squeezed into an increasingly small number of months, which can only further damage the ratings for bilateral, non Indian cricket. In December, for example, Zee‘s ad sales team have had the considerable challenge of trying to raise money on Pakistan v South Africa and Sri Lanka v West Indies at a time when both clashed with India playing at home. These problems will only increase in the next five years as bilateral cricket competes for dates in shortened seasons.

Away from cricket, Hero Honda‘s investment in the Hockey World Cup paid off with great national attention and showed the advantage of investing in non cricket events. Big time hockey returned in December with the Champions Trophy held in India.

The sale of those broadcast rights will be the first of the content battles this year and will give an indication of the funds available to the major buyers. Meanwhile, Indian hockey has overcome the criticism of having a lack of organisation, by now having two seperate organisations. Hopefully one of them will create a domestic format and a national team calendar that creates year round interest, with the Nimbus franchise based initiative an imaginative development.

In football, the headhunting of Kushal Das as the new CEO of the Indian federation was a very welcome symbol of the gradual transformation of the national body into a more organised, professional and accountable organisation. The very fact that the national league fixtures were for the first time issued for the whole year before the start of the season is a very positive indication that Indian football is finally beginning to enter the modern age. However, the “stars” of the national team are not part of this season‘s national league, with Bob Houghton‘s personal influence in the Indian game shown by his ability to take the team into a long camp for the Asia Cup event, where India enter with little hope but plenty of good wishes.

The IMG-Reliance deal to support the next decade of Indian football could be exactly what is needed, a long term investment that will hopefully deal with infrastructure challenges and create the vehicle to bring new money and excitement into the Indian version of the sport. The excellent development stories in the last year behind the professional clubs in Pune and Shillong show the potential for sensible footballing investments.

However, a primary challenge of the new agency will be to create a strong enough format that will overcome historical credibility issues and find suitable broadcaster support; it‘s easy to forget that the IPL revolution wouldn‘t have happened without Kunal Das Gupta‘s decision to invest so heavily for Sony despite the industry cynics. A similar long term broadcasting vision is needed to support the long term development of Indian football and hockey.

In international football, the big sale for the Indian territory will be the European Championships rights for 2012. Last time round the event was a huge success for ESPN Star Sports and reinforced their aggressive position on the World Cup. There is plenty of noise around the Premier Leauge and Champions League, but it‘s only the World Cup and European Championships that seriously affect the ratings and advertising markets in India.

In terms of sporting content being made available to viewers, one of the most welcome signs from 2010 was the success of the Total Sports Asia sale of the Spanish national football team TV rights to a Bangla language channel and Procam‘s work with Times Now to develop horse racing content. The imagination shown by these agencies makes the point that although the majority of international content will always head to conventional locations, “sports” content does not always need to be on the big sports channels.

Champions League cricket on Disney worked very well and experiments of this nature help grow a sporting audience as well as keeping everyone in the industry on their toes. Despite the increasing relevance (and audience share) of Neo Sports, and the growth in Ten‘s portfolio of channels (golf is still promised to follow), there are still plenty of sports events not available to an Indian audience. American football, a lot of the NBA, many of the Premier League games, NHL ice hockey, Manchester United TV and international athletics content are all not available live on India‘s hundreds of channels unlike neighbouring markets such as the Middle East, Singapore and Hong Kong.

This will be a very challenging year for the Indian sports business, with broadcasters and DTH platforms needing a clearer focus on a HD and 3D strategy as well as taking on the challenge of providing increasing content on broadband and mobile in India. The cricket World Cup may take a large amount of advertising money out of the market, but there are plenty of other options to claim attention in a busy year.

2010 has been a relatively low spending year for all the broadcasters; it‘s unlikely they will have that choice in 2011.

January 8, 2011