MUMBAI: Star India, the official broadcaster of the upcoming Asia Cup 2018, unveiled its promotional campaign for the tournament during an event in the city on Monday.
Star Sports CEO Gautam Thakar and cricket expert Dean Jones confirmed that the campaign will be launched later Monday across all of Star’s platforms with the tagline #KnockThemOut.
The promo is based on neighbour rivalry, which is what viewers will see in the Asia Cup that will feature India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan amongst the top ODI teams in the world.
In his first public interaction since his appointment as CEO, Thakar noted that Star Sports is stressing on the importance of tournaments such as Asia Cup as a perfect first stanza tune-up for next year’s ICC World Cup, which will be held in England and Wales.
He points out that the way the schedule has been drawn up offers the advertisers and fans the mouth-watering prospect of India and Pakistan clashing as many as three times during the event two week event that kicks off on 15 September in the UAE. That ideal prospect is of course dependent on the arch rivals playing each other in the finals on 28 September.
Seeing the success of the ‘Select Dugout’ show during the IPL, in which commentators such as Dean Jones made the game insightful with analytics, data and stats for old-fashioned and traditional cricket enthusiasts, Thakar was pleased to announced that the show will be back for the Asia Cup, probably with a new name. As it would be used for the first time in a 50-over tournament, the Star Sports marketing and production teams are still working on how to adapt it to suit the format, as also considering a whole new branding proposition for the show.
Besides Dugout, it is regional commentary which captured the imagination of cricket fans during Star India’s first year of broadcasting the IPL. As the Asia Cup is a short duration tournament, Star Sports will only be offering English, Hindi and Tamil feeds for the Asia Cup, Thakar revealed.
Queried about on-air sponsor partners, Thakar said te announcements would be made in due course. The on ground title sponsor of the Asia Cup 2018 has already been tied in though, with Unimoni, formerly known as UAE Exchange in countries outside the local market, on board.
