News Broadcasting
ICC to conduct Super Series tourney in Aus next year
MUMBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced a new tournament the ICC Super Series. It has awarded the rights to stage the inaugural edition of the event to Australia.
The ICC Super Series will see the number one team in the world take on a Rest of the World side in a one-off six day Test and three one-day matches. These will be played in Sydney and Melbourne. The event takes place in October 2005 with total prize money expected to top $ 1.7 million.
ICC CEO Malcolm Speed said that the tournament would revive a format of the game which has proven difficult to schedule in recent years.
The last time a team of the world’s best players visited Australia was in 1971-1972. Sir Garfield Sobers lead a side including Bishan Bedi, Zaheer Abbas and Clive Lloyd against Ian Chappell’s Australian team.
In order to accommodate the tournament the different cricket playing countries have agreed to slightly alter their playing schedule. This will allow their star players free time to participate. The ICC is hoping to conduct the tournament once in four years like the World Cup.
The problem will lie in choosing the members of the rest of the world side. As Speed pointed out, “Choosing between Rahul Dravid, Michael Vaughan, Sachin Tendulkar, Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, Inzamam ul-Haq, Stephen Fleming, Brian Lara, Vireder Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly is hard enough. Then you have to choose the all rounder, the wicket-keeper and the bowling attack”
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
