BCCI announced a reality TV show 'Cricket Star' that aims to cash in on the popularity of the game through a talent hunt programme.
NEW DELHI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Thursday announced a reality TV show 'Cricket Star' that aims to cash in on the popularity of the game through a talent hunt programme.
Cricket Star, on the lines of 'Indian Idol', will screen applicants from across the country and select the best through auditions in their region.
The finalists will spend up to 10 weeks in an academy where they will be subjected to a televised series of unique mental and physical tests.
They will also get a chance to display their cricket skills through weekly televised matches involving cricket celebrities.
The performances will be marked while the public will vote by phone and internet to prune down the list. The final selection will be made by millions of television viewers in a dramatic final episode.
The applications would be processed in August and the regional screening would take place in September-October.
The Cricket Star academy would open in November and the winner would be identified in the first week of February.
Investors in Cricket (IIC), the company behind the concept, has plans to televise the programme in the UK in 2007 and in Pakistan soon after.
Interestingly, Fraser Castellino of IIC, said the programme would serve as a selection trial for the board and the winner would be fast-tracked into the national side.
Faced with a barrage of questions, Castellino made a volte face. "We will use the board's facilities and draw on the coaching staff but there is no guarantee of selection into the state or national team," Castellino said.
Kapil Dev, Chairman of Board's Cricket Development Committee said, "India is a vast country. If the board can reach the rural areas (to hunt talent), it is good. And if others can also do that, then it should be welcome."
"We have the honorary and professional set up on either side. In two or three years we will come to know who has done what work," Kapil added.
Castellino said Cricket Star was a commercial arrangement between IIC and the board.
Board's Marketing Committee members, I S Bindra and Lalit Modi, were not present at the press conference although the invite said they would be.
BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah said over phone: "It is like that musical programme, and nothing else."
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