"With 'Believe In Blue' we want to galvanise fans-support towards the Indian team": Sanjog Gupta

Head of Sports, Star and Disney India explains why it is important to have a continuing narrative that strings multiple bilateral tournaments together

In India, Cricket is more than a sport. Outsiders call it obsession, Indians celebrate the game as their religion, worship the stars as their Gods. One of the ambassadors of the modern game, Sachin Tendulkar is a Bharat Ratna - the highest civilian award in the Republic of India. Eleven players walk into the ground loaded with expectations and if it is a World Cup, the expectations multiply manifold. This time, it got to the nerves of the current lot of players who have set the benchmarks high by performing like robots in recent times. International Cricket Council's T-20 World Cup proved that they are humans, vulnerable...

India lost to Pakistan in the very first match. Followed up with another defeat to New Zealand. India versus Pakistan match is always an occasion. It is like the Barcelona Football Club playing Real Madrid. El Classico.

Virat Kohli's announcement that he will give up captaincy after the World Cup, BCCI announcing Mahendra Singh Dhoni will mentor the team added to the hype. According to ICC, fans collectively consumed 1,590 crore minutes on the Star India Network, surpassing the previous high of the India vs West Indies semi-final match from the 2016 edition of the ICC event held in India. But it turned out to be one-sided. Pakistan won the match by ten wickets, Indian cricket fans never suffered a defeat like this before, and as for fans of Pakistan Cricket, it was 'Mauka Mauka'.

It was way back in 2007 when team India was knocked out early of a World Cup. India playing under Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappel was defeated by Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in West Indies in the 2007, which historians call one of the lowest points for Indian cricket. Soon followed the first-ever T-20 World Cup in South Africa which Mahendra Singh Dhoni's young boys won to mark the beginning of a new era in Indian Cricket.

This time, there was no such driving force to bring fans back as India was about to host New Zealand for a bilateral series. Top stars of the game in both teams were rested, fans were dejected, back to back cricket - first with IPL and then World Cup brought in a sense of fatigue among viewers, and so, Star Sports, the official broadcaster of the BCCI organised games, rolled out a campaign 'Believe In Blue' with a call for fans to back the team.

As per reports quoting data shared by Star and Disney India, the first T-20 match between India and New Zealand garnered 4.9 million TVT (Television Viewership in Thousands) among M15+ AB Urban. The reach, according to reports stood at 73 million viewers in 2+ U+R category on an absolute basis. So, did 'Believe In Blue' work?

Sanjog Gupta, Head of Sports, Star and Disney India says the aim of the campaign was not to deliver high viewership in just one bilateral series. He calls 'Believe In Blue' a journey that will continue at least till the ICC ODI World Cup, scheduled to be played in 2023. Star Sports created one such long-lasting narrative, 'Mauka Mauka' in 2015, that many felt had an abrupt conclusion as no one knows what happened to crackers. Gupta disagrees...

In an interview with afaqs! Sanjog Gupta, speaks about his vision with 'Believe In Blue', why it is important to have a narrative that strings multiple bilateral tournaments together and above all, when cricket is so popular in India, why he needs to devote so much energy in creating a campaign to invite fans.

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