October 27, 2007 New Delhi, India
Chris Cairns, the legendary New Zealand All-rounder, was in town to launch to Lotte Superskills. An event and TV programme where 15 top cricketers from all over the world assembled to play 2 days of hard fought cricket, to be crowned Lotte Superskills champions.

Teams from India, Pakistan , Australia, England, and the Rest Of The World, made up the competition, and top names like Sehwag, Sreesanth, Afridi, Katich, Razzaq, Atapattu, Justin Kemp etc tested their skills against men and machines.

Lotte Superskills is a TV cricket programme, that was initially conceived of by the late Pakistani coach, Bob Woolmer, and the last two editions had seen some fierce competition from players like Akram, Cairns, Dravid, Kaif, Petersien, etc.

According to Chris Cairns, who is the only player to be associated with all three editions of Superskills, the first as a player, and the other two as a presenter, ” Lotte Superskills is hard fought. Players have a lot of pride and prestige at stake, and as a player who participated in the Event, I can assure you it’s a real test f all-round cricket skills”

The event covers :
Power Drive:
The batsman is bowled a series of deliveries from a bowling machine. Points for the hitting the ball the farthest

Stroke Master:
All about how cleanly batsman can drive and push the ball into the gaps.

Wicket Speedster:
Batsmen run one, two and three runs. Points are scored for the fastest individual timed runs.

Deadeye:
The fieldsman chases and throws at stumps within a time restriction – accuracy of throws determine score.

Fine Line:
Most Accurate Bowler – Simple test to evaluate Line & Length . The ‘ Corridor of Uncertainty ” and THE PERFECT LENGTH make the event unique and competitive

Over the years, the concept has been honed and fine-tuned by Anthony Bouchier and Navroze Dhondy, ensuring that the gripping action lends itself well to great television viewing.

Title Sponsor Lotte, the Korean based confectionery giant which recently bought Chennai based Parry’s , is looking at a 3-year association with this exciting cricket game format.

According to K V Ramachandra, Managing Director, Lotte India, ” We were delighted when Creatigies approached us with this opportunity. Lotte Superskills is a perfect ft with our target group. Children and young adults would love the fast paced action, and the excitement of meeting top class world players. We plan to extend this to schools, and get a lot of ground activity around the event as well as the telecast”

The teams:
India: Virendra Sehwag, S Sreesanth, Suresh Raina
Pakistan: Azhar Mahmood, Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi
Australia: Simon Katich , Travis Burt , Andy Bichel
England: Ed Joyce , Darymple , Sajid Mahmood
Rest of the World: Marvan Atapattu, Justin Kemp, Andre Adams

Umpire: Ian Harvey

Chris Cairns, who has been associated with all 3 Superskills events, was clearly of the opinion that this format has great potential, and can be developed as a great coaching aide by many schools, colleges, clubs and countries.

According to Anthony Bouchier, MD, QGH, the company that co-created and implemented the event, was happy with the 3rd edition. ” Having top cricketers come back each time to play the Event, makes us believe that this format and skill concept has the potential to grow globally”

The other companies that have appreciated the value and partnered with Lotte Superskills, are Western Union, Canon, Boost, Pizza Hut, Club Mahindra, DYC, exchange4media & Power.
Navroze Dhondy, CEO, Creatigies Communications, who has been co-creating the event, and is the marketing associate of QGH, for Superskills over the years, said,” having an aggressive brand like Lotte come on board is wonderful for Superskills. Lotte Superskills will raise the bar, and with more than 500,000 lakh outlets at its disposal, Lotte Superskills will enter far more homes and minds than ever before. It’s also very heartening to see so many other enlightened companies and brands partner Lotte Superskills, and maximising its value through concerted leveraging”

The programme will be aired as a 14 part weekly programme on Zee Sports and highlights / weekly round ups would be available on CNN IBN. According to Satish Menon, President , Zee Sports, ” we are extremely happy to be the channel partner telecasting Lotte Superskills. It’s a game show that we believe will get eyeballs that will benefit the channel as well as the sponsors of the Event”

Telecast: Preview shows: 5th & 12th October 2007
Telecast: Lotte Superskills: 14 episodes,

June 1st, 2007 New Delhi, India

The MIG Grounds Bandra will see a rather unique contest today. A star-studded Reebok XI taking on the young aspirants from Cricket star, India’s first cricket reality show.

Over the past few months, hundreds of hopefuls have come from all corners of the country, in search of becoming India’s Cricket
Star. A sure ticket to fame and name, and an exciting county cricket contract with the Leicestershire cricket club.

According to Manish Popat, CEO , Investors in Cricket (IIC), ” we are delighted that Reebok has brought together some of its top stars to play an important match against the Cricket Star aspirants. I am sure this will go a long way in testing their skills, and helping us arrive at the best candidate”

” Reebok has always attempted to keep an eye open for talent, and as it was proven ten years ago, Reebok was the brand that took on India captain Rahul Dravid even before he was inducted in the Indian test team.”said Sajid Shamim, Director Marketing & product, Reebok India.

The Reebok XI will have some top notch players such as Harbhajan Singh, Robin Uthappa, Ajit Agarkar, Ramesh Powar, etc, who will test the skills of the aspirants and final Cricket Star XI candidates.

Cricket being the passion and religion that it is has attracted a large number of youngsters from the big cities and small towns to try their hand at becoming India’s first Cricket Star. According to Navroze Dhondy, CEO, Creatigies Communications, the agency that created this Reebok partnership with Cricket Star, “Reebok’s philosophy of ‘I am what I am’, has gone beyond just being an advertising slug-line. It’s a belief that has led the brand to always support raw talent that believes in itself.”

With Kapil Dev, Geoff Boycott, Sanjay Manjrekar, Ajay Jadeja and Robin Singh all at the ground to evaluate the aspirants, and their performance against the Reebok Stars, today will be an important match where the performers will go through and the not so good fall by the way-side.

Watch the match telecast on Zee Sports.