MAM
Confident Group to sponsor West Indies cricket team in two ICC events
MUMBAI: The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has announced Confident Group as the West Indies Team Sponsor for the ICC Champions Trophy in England next month and ICC World Twenty20 2014 in Bangladesh.
Confident Group is an Indian conglomerate, headquartered in Bangalore with interests in infrastructure, hospitality, aviation, entertainment, education and health care. Confident Group owns and operates hotels in Bangalore.
WICB CEO Michael Muirhead said, “We welcome Confident Group as our team sponsor for these two mega world cricketing events. The West Indies Team, having won the World Twenty20 in 2012 is one of the most attractive teams for a sponsor to be associated with in international cricket at the moment and we are delighted to have the Confident Group on board for the Champions Trophy and the World Twenty20 in 2014 when the West Indies will defend our title.”
“This association of the West Indies Team with another major Asian company is significant from the point of view that we are able to attract some of the most high profile companies from a dynamic and wide-ranging cricket market to our portfolio and it is a demonstration of the confidence of the corporate sector in West Indies cricket which remains a strong brand on the global cricket stage,” he added.
Confident Group chairman, MD Dr. Roy CJ said, “As a Group, we see and believe that there exists tremendous value in being associated with a talented, high profile and lively team like the West Indies. We will be partnering with them as the lead sponsor of the team for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy and the 2014 ICC World Twenty20. The West Indian team boasts of cricketing legends from time immemorial and the confidence the current team exudes is surely something that energises us as a brand as well. Cricket has undergone a sea change over the years and the sheer reach of the game forms a perfect fit in our business expansion plans as well.”
Sports marketing agency Total Sports Asia facilitated the sponsorship. The company‘s VP sales and marketing Tuhin Mishra said, “It has been an honour and privilege to work with the West Indies Cricket Board and Confident Group. This is yet another landmark deal from TSA‘s stable and the very first for any Indian brand like Confident Group who is reaching out to a global audience through West Indies cricket sponsorship.”
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
