71 percent viewers watched sports in Hindi

After Hindi, Bangla & Tamil  up next

English was the language of sports commentary when it started in India in the early 1940s on All India Radio. The listenership was limited to the English-speaking class. It was in the late 1950s that cricket commentary in Hindi made a beginning. Commentary in the language of the people took the game of cricket to the hinterlands.

The dominance of sports commentary in Hindi continued till the mid-1980s. Live commentary of India winning the 1975 Hockey World Cup & the 1983 cricket world cup were heard by most cricket fans in India in Hindi.

For the older generation, the names of commentators in Hindi such as Jasdev Singh, Suresh Saraiya, Narottam Puri and Ravi Chaturvedi still bring back memories of the 1970s and early 1980s when words created action happening on the cricket field.

Star Sports unveils hockey game plan, to invest Rs 1500 crore in national game

For Star Sports cricket & football are done, its time to do some hockey scoops. Just 2 days after a deal with International Hockey Federation FIH for all its events, Star Sports has announced ₹15 billion ( ₹1,500 crore) investment in hockey over eight years. With this investment they are all set to become largest hockey broadcaster in the world. 

Star India head of sports business Nitin Kukreja is very clear that the broadcaster is putting its money where its mouth is. “Our aim is to transform the sporting landscape and imbibe a culture of multiple sports in India. Sports broadcasters have traditionally only invested in cricket while shying away from other sports. We are not doing that. There are pockets of passion that still exist for hockey. The question is whether those people are getting a product that matches their expectations. Our investment of ₹15 billion is the biggest in the game globally.”