Sports
Chelsea appoints Ron Gourlay as chief executive
MUMBAI: A day after Peter Kenyon stepped down as CEO of Chelsea FC, the English football club has been quick to name his replacement. Ron Gourlay, the club’s chief operating officer, has now been elevated to the post.
“It is a huge honour to be offered the chance to lead Chelsea. We have a fantastic team both on and off the field and those teams can move us onto even greater success in the future,” Gourlay said in a statement.
Commenting on Gourlay‘s elevation, Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck said, “It was not necessary to look outside as we had someone with all the necessary attributes inside which was important as it ensures continuity and a smooth transition. Gourlay has the total support of the board and Roman Abramovich and both the football and business elements of the club will report to him.”
Gourlay has spent five years at Chelsea. He’s also worked with other clubs such as Manchester Untied and Umbro – two of Kenyon’s former employers.
Sports
Diamond Raja gets the Sunrisers dancing in Netflix’s latest IPL campaign film
Sunil Grover’s beloved character pulls the Hyderabad squad into an alternate universe in the newest instalment of Netflix’s Chill Like a Champion series
Mumbai: The final over is done, the bats are racked and the Sunrisers Hyderabad dressing room is ready for its real entertainment to begin. Netflix, the official entertainment partner of the Sunrisers, has dropped the latest film in its Chill Like a Champion campaign, and it is loud, daft and very deliberate fun.
The film opens with the squad unwinding after a long day on the field by tuning into Netflix, where they stumble into Diamond Raja, Sunil Grover’s scene-stealing avatar from The Great Indian Kapil Show. One moment they are slumped on sofas; the next, they have been pulled bodily into Diamond Raja’s world, all high-energy choreography, theatrical excess and a custom, lyrically reworked version of his signature song, Slowly Slowly. The rewrite doubles as a tongue-in-cheek nudge to slow down, switch off and enjoy the moment. Cricketers Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head are all swept along for the ride.
The film is stuffed with winks at fan-favourite Netflix titles, including Pushpa and the K-drama When Life Gives You Tangerines, threading cricket’s biggest downtime into the streamer’s broader content universe.
Grover, for his part, seems to have relished every second of it. “Netflix has certainly surprising ways to inspire and excite you as an artist,” he said. “This collaboration brought together the best of two worlds, cricket and entertainment. Coming together with the stellar cricketers Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head was such a delightful experience. Getting to bring Diamond Raja into this mix was an interesting way to make this even more special. It is playful, happy, it is dramatic, and it shows how entertainment can completely pull you into another world. Just like what Netflix does.”
The Chill Like a Champion campaign spans several films, each catching cricket’s biggest names in their post-match, unheroic best, hooked to a screen and very much off the clock. The Sunrisers film is the latest addition to the series.
Netflix describes itself as one of the world’s leading entertainment services, offering TV series, films, games and live programming across genres and languages, available anytime, anywhere.
Diamond Raja is back, the Sunrisers are dancing and, if Netflix has its way, so is the rest of India.
