ITV

Tag: Sanjay Manjrekar

  • ICC U19 Cricket WC gets underway today in UAE

    ICC U19 Cricket WC gets underway today in UAE

    MUMBAI: The tenth edition of the tournament will be staged across seven venues in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from 14 February to 1 March, and the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) global broadcast partner Star Sports is stepping up its production, as it gets set to make history.

     

    More cricket fans than ever before will be able to enjoy watching the most far-reaching and comprehensive coverage of an ICC U19 Cricket World Cup (ICC U19 CWC).

     

    Following up on its world-class production of the ICC Champions Trophy 2013, Star Sports will produce 11 matches in High Definition (HD) – the most matches ever at an ICC U19 CWC.

     

    Star Sports business head sports Nitin Kukreja said, “The ICC U19 Cricket World Cup is a premier tournament which showcases cricket’s future super stars. We have mounted an unprecedented production and broadcast effort to take cricket aficionados even closer to the action than ever before. We are confident that cricket fans will enjoy introduction of LED stumps for the very first time in an ICC tournament which will further enhance the broadcast experience.”

     

    The event is set to reach an estimated audience of 1.3 billion, with broadcast agreements secured by Star Sports. This includes the continued coverage by ICC broadcast partners, Fox Sports in Australia, Sky Sports in the United Kingdom, OSN across Middle East and North Africa, ESPN in North America and the Caribbean and Sky NZ in New Zealand.

     

    The Dubai International Cricket Stadium will be the main TV venue for the tournament while one match from the Sharjah Cricket Stadium will also be broadcast live. All televised matches will be covered using 14 cameras, including ball tracking and virtual graphics provided by Hawk-Eye.

     

    ICC chief executive David Richardson said: “The expanded broadcast and digital reach of this edition of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup will ensure that more fans globally now have an opportunity to see the sport’s future stars in action.”

     

    For the first-time in an ICC event, LED stumps will be used to provide the television viewers and spectators at the venue an enhanced experience.  The stumps and bails illuminate when the bails are dislodged, giving the broadcaster and the crowd a true indication of when a batsman is out. They will be used for the semi-finals and final only.

     

    The live broadcast will be complimented by a world-class commentary team, which includes Harsha Bhogle, Sanjay Manjrekar, Damien Martyn, Danny Morrison, Jonty Rhodes, Wasim Akram and Alan Wilkins.

                                                                                

    The TV broadcast of the event will be a truly interactive one for fans, who can stay engaged through polls on the event website www.icc-cricket.com and via the social media using the hashtag #futurestars and #u19cwc.

     

    Fans can also stay updated on the event via the event website www.icc-cricket.com which will feature live scores of all the matches and video clips of the key moments from the televised matches. 

  • Starsports.coms Sachin Redux

    Starsports.coms Sachin Redux

    He didn’t just play cricket, he wrote history. And, legions of fans watched Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar as he broke record after record, bringing India glory after glory…

    Fittingly, the website selling 6,000-odd tickets to the master blaster’s 200th and final test match starting today at the Wankhede Stadium, garnered a staggering 20 million hits. Whereas the stadium saw a snaking queue outside, with some people even managing to catch a few winks before they got to the ticket counters.

    Indeed, all the excitement around Sachin’s retirement is but a testimony to the love and adulation he has earned after 24 long and hard years in the game. But for the many cricket buffs out there who can’t seem to get enough of the master blaster, the Starsports.com team has come up with a special feature called #SachinMemoryProject on social media platforms.  

    The project gives Sachin aficionados an opportunity to recollect all the great moments in his life. It tracks chronologically not only what happened in the cricketing legend’s life over the past 24 years but world events that unfolded even as his career was taking shape.

    The #SachinMemoryProject brings back almost all Sachin moments in a slide show format, with each anecdote also on the timeline of the Star Sports official facebook page as well as twitter handle. It is rich in content and clubbed with text and videos of eminent people holding forth on the cricketer as well as Sachin talking about his life and times.

    “With the project, we wanted to give fans something special. Almost everybody in the media industry is running a special series on the cricketer but we wanted to create a memorabilia of sorts. Something that is easy to consume and something with which everyone can relate,” says Star India head of digital business Ajit Mohan.

    The #SachinMemoryProject ‘begins from the beginning’, with the first slide of Sachin as a 14-year-old, along with Vinod Kambli, putting up 664 runs for Shardashram, the highest scoring partnership in school cricket. In less than two years, he would go on to make his test debut for India.

    The latter slides reveal lesser known facts about the stalwart. For instance, the ‘main khelega’ slide highlights that moment in 1989 when Sachin had just started his international innings and his contemporaries were yet to get an idea about his patience levels. “With Pakistan pressing for victory, Sachin is hit on the nose by a rising Waqar delivery. As doctors try to stop the blood gushing from his nose and get him off the field, his batting partner Sidhu hears a squeaky voice say ‘main khelega’. Sachin continued batting in a blood soaked shirt, scoring 50 and saving the match for India,” reads the slide.

    Another slide brings to the fore Sachin’s competitive streak even as a 16-year-old. “During the Pakistan tour, Sachin lost a game of table tennis to Sanjay Manjrekar. Sachin challenged Manjrekar to another game, beat him. Beat him again before calling it quits. Even as a 16-year-old, he didn’t like losing,” it says.

    According to Mohan, a separate team of 15 people was designated to work on the project three months ago. “All the members of this team are passionate Sachin fans and are aware of the many nitty-gritties of his life. While working on the project, we also discovered many unknown facts about him. Those were the moments of serendipity,” he says cheerfully.

    Interestingly, the Sachin moments are juxtaposed with important events happening across the globe around the same time. For example, things like who took charge as India’s PM or which actor became a phenomenon while the cricketer was busy adding another century to his portfolio, etc.

    A slide titled ‘The American President(s)’ reads: “George Bush Sr. is elected President of the United States. Sachin’s career ran alongside that of four US Presidents, and seven terms, including two terms of George Bush Jr.”

    Mohan says the idea was to chart the 24-glorious years in the best possible way. “He has stayed in action for a very long time. By mentioning the other consequential events during the period in the project, we have just tried to bring to the fore the fact that the world changed in the long period that he has played and maintained his stature as one of the best cricketers in the world,” he says.

    Not surprisingly, #SachinMemoryProject, which was uploaded on Tuesday, has already grabbed a lot of eyeballs. “We are witnessing almost 25 to 30 thousand views in a day and each viewer is spending at least 30 minutes on it,” says Mohan, adding, “After watching the slide show, most viewers become very emotional and nostalgic while commenting. Viewers are writing about their personal memories associated with particular matches.”

    Mohan points out that the team working on the project didn’t get new quotes from industry for the videos included in the slide show preferring instead to utilize their time packing the project with information. “Over the years, we have built a bank of such videos that have matter on Sachin. We just utilised our resources well and aggregated all those to create this unmatchable show,” he rounds off.

  • Times Now show ‘The Game’ sports new look

    Times Now show ‘The Game’ sports new look

    MUMBAI: The Game, on Times Now will sport a fresh look and air at prime time from tonight. Cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar will kick off the new series of the season and also take a look at 2007 World Cup on the show.

    Commenting on the new look Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami said, “Times Now is No. 1 in Sports News. And with this new format of The Game we’ll offer our viewers power-packed news shows driven by journalists who live & breathe sport.”

    The Game in the new format will have two show hosts, with a guest anchor on every show. Starting with a synopsis of the days sporting action the show will delve into the biggest news story from India and the world. The Game will also have international sports capsules from Reuter’s correspondents from across the Europe and other parts of the world.

    A special segment based on a specific theme will be aired during the week. For example Young Turks will look into upcoming sports talent while Gaming reviews the latest sports games from the virtual world; Books will review latest sport related books, DVD’s etc and adventure sports, new sports and games that haven’t been explored.

    The Game is to be aired on Times Now at 10 p.m. starting tonight.

  • Cricinfo.com expands portfolio; signs cricket experts

    Cricinfo.com expands portfolio; signs cricket experts

    MUMBAI: Cricinfo.com, which is part of the Wisden Group and provides cricket content across online, mobile, audio, print platforms, has signed on several cricket experts. They will be a part of Cricinfo’s team.

    The experts include Ravi Shastri, Ian Chappell, Sanjay Manjrekar and Tony Greig. Cricinfo.com has bolstered its audio service. It is called Cricinfo Talk. One segment is called The round table. This is a fortnightly discussion hosted by Sanjay Manjrekar on a hot issue in cricket. Last Saturday’s round table featured all the above mentioned cricketers talking about batsmen. Then there is the Tony Greig Show. He casts his eye on the games, players, issues. There will also be a section called Turning Points.

    This offers post match analysis. The cricket experts will also contribute writing pieces to the site cricinfo.com. Wisden group CEO Tom Gleeson said, “As a leading cricket media business Cricinfo has always associated itself with the best in the cricketing world. These names bring a wealth of opinion and distinct viewpoints that are respected by cricket fans
    across the world. They also reflect our commitment to develop the Cricinfo brand into one that interacts with our audiences on multiple levels.”

    Cricinfo.com editor Sambit Bal said, “ When cricinfo.com and Wisden.com merged in 2003 it was not merely a consolidation of businesses. It was the coming together of two striong ideas. Today the website is not merely the first and last destination for news and information about cricket but has also emerged as one of the games leading voices. Signing up a panel of experts who are known for their independent
    and originality is a significant step for us.”

    “Our editorial mission is simple – if there is cricket it must be covered. But there is much more to our coverage than breadth. It is about depth. It is about speed without sacrificing accuracy. It is about balance without losing the passion,” he added.

    “Cricinfo has writers from all over the world and they have been trained to look beyond their national boundaries. We aim to provide an objective but informed view. Thanks to the Wisden Almanack archives we have a match report for every match ever played. We call ourselves the home of cricket and we try to live up to it. Our millions of users rely on us to provide the ‘big picture’ because we combine local knowledge with global perspective.”

    Recently cricinfo.com launched its blogs section. Bal points out that blogs are proliferating faster than one can say cyberspace. “However Cricinfo’s blogs hold their own due to writers like Kamran Abbhasi and Tim De Lisle. We also have ex cricketers like Tony Greig as well as a current coach Bob Woolmer. However our blogs are also about readers who get to comment on every piece written and are fast forming a vibrant community for us.

    “Blogs allows our readers to not just follow the action but also be a part of it. A feature like blogs allows us to break new ground.”

    Cricinfo adds that that the avid Indian cricket fan has helped it grow. It claims that five million people globally followed the first India versus Pakistan test earlier this year. One in four visitors is Indian. The UK, and Australia each provide 15 per cent of cricinfo’s visitors. The US with their NRIs is also a significant market for cricinfo. Cricinfo.com says that last month Indian fans read more than 212 million pages of news, scorecards, match reports and profiles.

    Globally 151 million page views were recorded from 5.6 million unique users. This refers to different individuals visiting the site during the month. Cricinfo adds that a high point came
    in 13 February 2006 when over 1.25 million people wanted news about an ODI between India and Pakistan as well as VB series final from Australia. The classic match between Australia and South Africa where the latter chased down 434 runs in an ODI got 685,000 page views for the match report.

    Sachin Tendulkar is the site’s most visited player profile page. Cricinfo says that in one year its home page has got over half a billion visits.

    The Mobile Plans: Cricinfo also recently ventured into the mobile sphere. Its short code is 2742 and delivers information and entertainment products across verticals ranging from SMS to Wap. Its site is cricinfomobile.com. It provides content in india to Hutch, Spice Telecom, Idea and Tata Indicom. The
    content that it offers includes:

    – SMS. This means live scores, wicket alerts, news trivia, statistics and contests.
    – MMS. This refers to mwallpapers, games, realtoneas and other java based applications.
    – Wap – Wap.Cricinfo,.com offers live scroes, news, statistics, ringtones etc.
    – Connected platforms. Cricinfo Genie the firm says is the first connected cricket applicatio0n in India which allows mobile consumers to watch cricket live on their phones in a simulated format.

    Cricinfo Trivia Champ meanwhile is a connected trivia game that allows subscribers to compete against thousands of other cricket fans for weekly sweepstakes. Cricinfo Mobile also has dwals with mobile operators in the UK, Australia, Sri Lanka , Pakistan and Bangaldesh. There are now plans to roll out the service in the US and the Middle East since there is a large Indian expatriate community living here.

    Now Cricinfo Mobile will also provide match analysis of India matches, the Ashes and the cricket World Cup courtesy Ravi Shastri and Tony Greig.