MUMBAI: Cricket advertising in India is a genre unto itself, but Sony Pictures Networks India may have just served up one of its most affecting innings yet. Its new Asia Cup promotional TVC, titled Asia Cup ka maha-muqabla, does not rely on pyrotechnics or overblown jingoism. Instead, it leans into something far more powerful: the lived reality of a billion-strong cricket nation.
The spot opens in a middle-class household, the sort instantly recognisable to viewers across India — compact, cluttered, warm. A multi-generational family, representing the classic Indian joint household, is gathered around a television set. Their emotions run the gamut from tense expectation to barely-suppressed hope. In their midst sits Virender Sehwag, the retired swashbuckler whose effortless stroke play once embodied India’s batting swagger. His presence is casual, yet symbolic: cricket is family.
On screen unfolds the ultimate cliché of Indian sport — a last-ball thriller against Pakistan. Suryakumar Yadav, known for his 360-degree stroke-making but carrying the weight of a poor run against Pakistan, takes guard against Shaheen Shah Afridi, Pakistan’s fiery left-arm quick. India need three off the final delivery. The room holds its breath. Yadav unfurls his trademark flick-sweep off his pads. The ball soars over fine-leg, lands in the stands. India have won.
The family erupts. So do, by implication, the millions watching at home across the country. The genius of the commercial is that the victory is not just India’s, not just Yadav’s redemption, not just a nod to the India–Pakistan rivalry that remains cricket’s greatest theatre. It is framed as a shared triumph of nationhood.
Sony has laced the narrative with subtle social cues. The family members are deliberately cast without overt religious markers — no heavy-handed signifiers of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, or Christian identities. Instead, their togetherness suggests an anonymous universality, a blend of every Indian home. When one family member remarks, “God has listened to your prayers,” the phrase resonates across religions. It could as easily be said in a temple, mosque, church, or gurdwara.
This inclusivity crystallises in the closing voiceover: “When it comes to Team India, 140 crore hearts beat as one.” It is more than a tagline; it is an assertion of secular nationalism, packaged through the one institution that cuts across fault lines of caste, creed, and community — cricket.
The choice of Sehwag is inspired. His image has long been that of the approachable great: less demi-god than street-cricketer made good. Sehwag in a living room, laughing along with ordinary Indians, works as shorthand for the collapsing of boundaries between the game’s elite and its fans. In a country where cricket stars are often deified, here is one being human.
The film also plays on nostalgia. For decades, Indian households have arranged their routines around cricket matches. The image of families huddled before television sets — chai cups rattling, grandparents muttering prayers, children imitating shots in the cramped corridor — is imprinted in the national psyche. By invoking that memory, Sony makes the Asia Cup not just about live sport, but about reliving a tradition.
The timing of the TVC is astute. The Asia Cup kicks off on 9 September, with India–Pakistan ties expected to draw record ratings. This is also India’s first major tournament after the passage of the Online Gaming Bill 2025, which banned betting and fantasy sports with cash stakes but emphasised “safe online gaming” and esports as cultural exports. Sony’s film neatly dovetails with the government’s rhetoric: cricket as a unifying, wholesome national obsession rather than a site of division.
Advertising scholars will note how Asia Cup ka maha-muqabla breaks from older tropes. Previous India–Pakistan promos often thrived on antagonism: taunts, satire, chest-thumping. Sony, by contrast, softens the edges. The rivalry remains fierce — the six off Afridi is fantasy fulfilment — but the messaging is inward-looking. The focus is not beating Pakistan as much as celebrating India.
For a tournament where sport often becomes geopolitics, this is a nuanced turn. In less than a minute, the campaign positions cricket as faith, family, catharsis, and national glue.
That, in the end, is why the spot works. It is not simply flogging a match, or a tournament. It is selling the idea that India itself is best understood when a billion-plus citizens are praying for the same thing, shouting at the same screen, and rejoicing together when the ball sails into the stands.
Watch the film here: YouTube link
