The Hindu Business Line : Will weather play truant at Asia Cup?

WILL the rain Gods play party-pooper at the Asia Cup? With just a few days to go before the India-Pakistan match, media planning sources said weathermen have already forecast rain with thundershowers at Colombo and its adjoining areas.

And the view among media planners is divided, with a section of them expressing concern about the rains. "The season does not seem appropriate for cricket and even with the reserve day for the final match, we are not very sure whether all the matches would be played or not," said a Mumbai-based media planner. Others, however, feel that if the rains disrupt play, then the broadcaster would have to make good the loss. "Hence, it is a no win, no loss situation," they said.

ESPN Software India officials, meanwhile, are not too worried about the tropical downpour. "In the last 100 one-day internationals, only one match was shortened by 10 per cent and no match has been called off. So we do not expect a problem, especially with regard to the finals," they said.

The advertising fraternity has come forward to buy spots on the Asia Cup. According to ESPN, which owns the exclusive cable and satellite rights, besides Indian Oil Corporation which is the title sponsor, other on air sponsors include Pepsi, Perfetti, Airtel and Hindustan Lever Ltd, while the on-ground sponsors are Samsung and Standard Chartered Bank.

The satellite rights to Asia Cup being played between India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the UAE and Hong Kong are with ESPN, with the broadcaster experimenting with simultaneously airing the last five channels in Hindi on Star Sports. The broadcaster has already managed to book 80-90 per cent of the advertising time on both the channels and the advertising rates are expected to hover between Rs 1.30 lakh and Rs 1.4 lakh for a 10-seconder.