Cricinfo Magazine

This was an interesting stint in my career... a project that was very interesting and enthralling only because you get to work on a subject that the entire nation is crazy about, to the extent of fanatism...
But when the first time I was introduced to the subject my reaction was... "A CRICKET MAGAZINE" that too in India.... well my reaction was not misplaced because of what i thought about the sport and the medium that needed to support it...
1) Cricket by then had become an entertainment sport... One-day Format had already taken the gentleman out of the sport and the sport out of a gentleman...
2) Spectators (inside and outside) had become restless and looking for a galdiator-kind of sport rather than the statistics and passion that preceded in the test format.
3) The Twenty-20 format had just beginning to get in, in the form corporate T20 tournaments
4) The medium itself had migrated from the test eras to now, from newspaper - radio-Tv- Live TV and in each progression the sport became more and more entertaining and less and less informative
5) onlookers of yesteryears probably still remember the stroke that Bradman or Halls played and who caught the last wicket of that match... but now all that matter is who wins and who is the star cricketr.
6) Cricket had become a lifestyle statement and cricketers had outgrown the folds of magazine and got into page 3 broadsheets and the silver screens gave them more mileage...
7) Moreover while this was a masses game, Indian predominantly read lesser newspapers and even lesser magazine that too an english magazine... Advertising a key component would heavily depend on who reads and how many of them... Advertiser too wanted the masses glued on to Televisions than the passionate few who

the magazine got launched... I was a part of the team and the brand manager... but after about 2 years of operations, it was put to rest...