ESPNcricinfo, the world’s leading digital cricket brand, is further enhancing its coverage as India plays South Africa in the current series. ESPNcricinfo’s versatile programming comprises pre-match shows, rich analysis and on a lighter (entertaining) note; entertainment styled segments like Run Order, “#Polite Enquiries’, ‘Postcard from SA’, that are designed to bring the game closer to cricket fans. Ramesh Kumar, Vice President, Head of ESPN India and South Asia said, “Through this series, ESPNcricinfo is establishing a deeper cultural connect with South Africa for its fans all over the world, providing especially engaging game around the game coverage. ESPNcricinfo’s video shows provide highlights and in-depth analysis of every moment of the game, making them ideal offerings for fans to follow the game on a second screen and to understand the game better.”
For the ongoing series, ESPNcricinfo has some of the most admired and relevant cricketers and analysts such as ex-South African specialist batsman Daryll Cullinan, legendary Graeme Smith and Kepler Wessels, India’s firebrand opener Gautam Gambhir, Aakash Chopra, and Ajit Agarkar. The anchors, including ESPNcricinfo’s talented Raunak Kapoor and experts, will deliver match analysis with a unique perspective on the game with their usual unfailingly original and credible insights. Firdose Moonda and Raunak also take on fan questions in ‘#Polite Enquiries’ that will also feature highlights, reactions, statistics, and gallery. ESPNcricinfo’s team of anchors and experts covered South Africa’s new year parade and the Nelson Mandela Square and are extensively covering the rich shared history of India and South Africa, both in cricket and otherwise. All these add up to a very interesting and holistic coverage of the series by ESPNcricinfo, highlights of the match along with the sight and sound of the country.
The two-month long series has garnered immense interest amongst advertisers. With the closely contested 1st test Match, there is a slew of advertisers signed up for the series. ESPNcricinfo’s unique capability of creating interesting cricket stories in and around the game, across video, native, social formats has created excitement amongst the brands to partner with it. Prominent brand partners for this series are Maruti, Amazon, Xiaomi, IDFC, CEAT Tyres, Dell to name a few.
The prelude to the series kicked off with an interesting video feature called ‘Know your Opponent’ in partnership with Tourism South Africa. Past cricketers and experts Ajit Agarkar, Aakash Chopra along with ESPNcricinfo’s editorial team analyzed the South African players along with giving a background of the destination or region they were born, played cricket and now live. A very subtle and engaging way of creating awareness about various travel destinations in South Africa.
To capture the excitement around India’s first international tour of 2018, ESPNcricinfo has partnered with South Africa tourism board on a crowdsourcing content generation coupled with a contest titled ‘Ticket to South Africa’, which went live on January 13th. As part of the campaign, fans are invited to post a video on why he or she should be chosen for a trip to South Africa. Top five entries will be selected and featured every day and in the end top two entries will be shortlisted from amongst these daily winners. These two winners will get a chance to watch the last South Africa vs India T20 cricket match live, capturing their entire journey through a video blog.
