the one handed catch off Kane Williamson ~ bounty rains on Sunjay Ganda

The World is getting ready to watch the hyped India Pak encounter in a few minutes from now !!! ~ an ardent follower of the game,  if you were to be in an alien land – would you spend to watch a match between two other Countries ?  - some do, and one of them is set to become rich !! In olden days, when we watched matches at Chepauk, we would get excited when the ball is hit towards our stand and more thrilled when our favourite player comes near to retrieve it …. If someone catches a hit, he for sure would be a hero of the crowd !!!

I had posted about the Hagley Oval match between New Zealand and Srilanka.  Lankans were mauled at the lovely park lying in the middle of acres of greenery encompassing a botanic garden and a public golf course.  A Cricket ground made with the efforts of  Lee Germon, the former Kiwi captain, who is the chief executive of Canterbury Cricket.

The man is Sunjay Ganda whose s stunning one-handed catch at the opening game of the Cricket World Cup could potentially make him a million dollar man. The 31-year-old was among thousands at the first match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at Hagley Oval wishing a six would come their way for an opportunity to cash in on the Tui Catch a Million promotion running throughout the six week tournament. Ganda nabbed the catch off a Kane Williamson straight drive for six, with the added challenge of a diving spectator attempting to steal the prize from under his nose. Ganda was swarmed with high-fives and punters wanting selfies after taking the catch. One woman even jokingly asked him to marry her.

The Tui promotion asks participants to purchase a 2015 Tui Cricket T-Shirt to be worn at Cricket World Cup matches. If they manage to cleanly catch a six with one hand in the crowd, they can cash in on the prize. This year the promotion pool starts at $250,000, but for every stage the New Zealand cricket team reaches, the prize pool is increased, with the maximum being $1 million if they win the final. In short, Ganda currently stands to make $250,000 but could potentially pocket $1m. The total prize pool will be split between each person who takes the first clean catch, one-handed, at any of the 23 ICC Cricket World Cup matches in New Zealand.

Stuff.co.NZ mentions Hadleigh Fisher as the fan who dived in front of Ganda to try nab the prize. As he saw the ball lobbed towards him, the Aucklander screwed the top back on his beer before jumping over another spectator to launch himself into contention ~ and missed the ball by inches, in fact almost preventing Sunjay from taking that catch !

I had posted on ‘Tui Catch a Million promotion’ earlier – it  is running throughout the six-week World Cup, which includes 23 matches in New Zealand. DB Breweries is a Singaporean and Dutch brewing company operating in New Zealand. It was founded in 1930 by Sir Henry Kelliher and W Joseph Coutts. TUI brand is one of the better-known beers in New Zealand, partly due to strong advertising.  In grounds of SA, Australia, New Zealand, you can see people sitting relaxed manner having beer……

At Hamilton,  Corey Anderson’s hit was taken by  Jatinder Singh, a club-level cricketer -  Jatinder almost lost out as the lanyard was not over his orange T-shirt, when the catch was taken; the insurance company, which is supposed to shell out the money, almost nullified his claim but eventually the amount was given in a small ceremony during the match.  Surprising what sort of Insurance coverage this could have been ~ fortuity, insurable interest and other principles going for a toss…..here.

Tui Marketing Manager was earlier quoted as saying  “Tui knows the occasion of watching cricket is as important as the game itself, and Kiwis don’t need much motivation to make things interesting in the stands. Still, a hundred grand gets the boys together pretty quickly, and the response has been phenomenal. This is a great collaboration with our agency partners - we're all thrilled to see the campaign in action and really galvanise not just the cricketing community, but the nation.” The promotion has captured the imagination of commentators, players, punters and media, with the first catch generating huge social media coverage and international news.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

15^th Feb 2015.