On the hype today was SET Max’s effort of telecasting ICC trophy. If you aren’t a CAS subscriber in Chennai, you are good to go. You tend to escape from all the hype these guys give at SET Max. That good old Doordarshan broadcast may not be all that lovable but they are certainly far ahead than the commentary at SET.

Starting from the Ad for the India Vs Pakistan match were Tuvameva Matha cha Pitha Tuvameva prayer sings in the background with a montage of people from various parts of India praying for India Jeethega. There was also this small section of superstitions were they make people more superstitious from the existing superstition paranoid. Worst of all, a Tarot card pickup show that makes forecasts on the Indian victory. The height of hyping Indian Cricket.

Charu Sharma and Mandira Bedi were the hosts. Charu should definitely learn from Harsha’s way of making the host panel comfortable and cool. He himself seem to be tensed by cutting short a passionate conversation of Kapil Dev. We all know that time constraint is always there for such host shows, but there are better ways to cut conversations than abruptly stopping it. It rather gives a feeling that the host himself doesn’t appreciate the conversation too much. Harsha Bhogle has always been consistent in his approach by showing his listening capabilities. Both Charu and Mandira seem to drift away once they poise the questions and suddenly come back to stop the superb answer of their guests. Infact we’ve been seeing Charu Sharma on the sports programs from the early 90s where he was the main host of World cup Football broadcast while Harsha arrived a little later.

However, it was an appreciable effort to have Kapil recollect his thoughts on the 1983 World Cup match at Turnbridge Wells where he scored 175 Vs Zimbabwe. Kapil and Krish Srikkant visited the ground and brought back the nostalgia of that match. Krish was describing how the manager of the tour was superstitious and while Kapil was blasting away the Zimbabwe bowlers, he made every Indian player stay at the same place for the rest of the match. Poor Krish was standing near the pavilion while the manager instructed them and he had to stay there, in bitter cold, for the next 2 hours. Kapil did explain how his knock served as a moral booster for the rest of the tournament and how they used this positive energy to win the World Cup.

ESPN/Star Sports evidenced once again, withouth doing anything, that they are the specialists and their cricket broadcasting would look much professional than the other ones. Donno how well would the ZEE group perform in this arena but it’s become more of a stigma that if the match isn’t broadcasted in the ESPN/Star Sports its gives a feel that we watching a old Hindi movie starring Amitabh and Pran. Too much Masala.

The Ada ad which was puzzling a week ago was revealed today. It was Jaya TV‘s re-design of their programming structure. No-one, infact had guessed it right. But it did seem that the hype was just too much. I would have expected them to start a new channel for the kind of marketing effort it had. The Ad pic is on my photoblog.