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 15th Feb 2015.
