Digital incinerators have been working overtime at the headquarters of the official broadcasters of the T20 World Cup. The infamous Cupcake promotion, an exercise in futility so profound it practically encouraged the cricket gods to beat India’s top order, has been wiped from the internet. It was a masterpiece of the jinx genre: thirty second place which simultaneously mocked South Africa’s history of grief and assumed that Indian victory was a divine right.
Then came the Super 8 match in Ahmedabad. India suffered one of the heaviest defeats in the T20 World Cup, he left to collect the crumbs from the pitch as the Proteas enjoyed a 76-run feast. The promo was deleted faster than Abhishek Sharma’s overpowering cameo, leaving behind a trail of embarrassment and a very apt question: What on earth comes next?
When your latest marketing campaign ends up with a nation of 1.4 billion people eating humble pie, your next creative assignment becomes a minefield. Are you doubling down on the bragging rights, or are you finally, mercifully, coming of age?
DEATH to deception
Before we get excited, we have to deal with the sonic onslaught that accompanied the visual arrogance. “The Story of 300” has been pushed so aggressively that it seems to have penetrated the players’ own psychology. We saw it in the group stages and we saw it again on Sunday. Every swing was headed for the stratosphere; each release was a testament to purpose over intellect. There’s a fine line between promoting a team and setting it up for a spectacular fall, and the over-the-air powerhouse crossed it without hesitation.
of course they chose to delete the tweet but @StarSportsIndia he deserves this humiliation. if they had any integrity they would apologize to south africa. unbridled arrogance. the game always finds a way to humble those who think they are bigger than the game pic.twitter.com/3QCM3DFw1u– CaniZ (@caniyaar) February 22, 2026
After all, India have not played on the roads they have faced during the bilateral series. The World Cup offered many more sporting surfaces and much tougher tests.
How about we offer you three suggestions for your next ad? We are not professional ad film makers. But why worry? After all, the bar is already low.
Kaala Teeka: The ad features a silent, grandmotherly hand applying a black trail of soot to the glowing “300” graphic, protecting it from the broadcaster’s own Nazar (evil eye).
Mute Dhurandhar: A fan in a crowded coffee shop reaches for the remote and mutes the bombastic theme song, dryly telling the waiter, “Music scores more than openers.”
Okay, we’ll stop at two. We’ll save you the indignity of enduring more cringing.
WHY CHEAP ADVERTISING?
It is striking that a broadcaster with the resources of a small nation-state consistently takes the low road. Watch across the oceans on Cricket Australia or Sky Sports. Their promos don’t rely on belittling the opposition with elementary school metaphors or mocking accents that don’t even belong on the right continent. Instead, they rely on nostalgia, the weight of history and a fundamental respect for competition.
The Ashes promo doesn’t include an Englishman mocking an Australian accent for a lamington. It features the ghosts of Bodyline, the roar of Ben Stokes at Edgbaston and the mutual understanding that both sides are giants of the game. It invites the viewer to witness a war of skills, not schoolyard bullying. Why can’t we have the same for a rivalry as layered and compelling as India Vs. South Africa?
Indian broadcasters are doing the sport a disservice by pandering to the lowest common denominator with cheap shots. There is a growing, sophisticated cricket audience in India that is tired of the ‘Mauka Mauka’ school of marketing. They want the poetry of the game, the tactical chess match and the recognition that on any given day the opposition is fully capable of making you look very, very stupid.
CREATIVE SHORT
If Star Sports really want to improve, perhaps the next ad should include a hint of self-deprecation. Imagine an ad where an Indian fan is seen studying a stadium map. Or better yet one where Suryakumar Yadav and his men are shown in the nets practicing how to play a shot with a part-time straight bat.
The undercutting must stop. The haughty belief that Indian fans only respond to chest-pounding was never true. When you set up a World Cup match as a foregone conclusion based on vibes and pastries, you leave the players with nowhere to hide when the reality of professional sports hits. The ego we saw on the ground in Ahmedabad, the wild hoicky and the ‘300 run’ delusion was reflected perfectly in this promo.
The next ad will probably be safe, sanitized. Or not! However, one ingredient that makes sports broadcasting great in the UK or Australia will still be missing: respect for the uncertainty of sport. Broadcasters need to stop selling India as an invincible monolith and start selling the T20 World Cup for what it really is – a theater of the unpredictable. We have a creative mind to produce art. Instead, we produce memes that age like milk in the Ahmedabad sun.
So here’s a tip for the creative team: the next time you’re tempted to use a food item to mock a world-class opponent, maybe just don’t. Stick to cricket. Because if you serve up a cupcake of arrogance, the opposition will eventually force you to eat the whole tray.
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Issued by:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
February 23, 2026
