MUMBAI: Excited about the response the India-Australia and India-Sri Lanka series has received from viewers, Neo Cricket, the official broadcaster for the upcoming India-South Africa series, is looking to position the two-match Test series as a "World Championship of Cricket"; since the top two teams in the Test rankings are going to compete against each other to go top of the ladder.

In the current ICC Reliance Mobile ratings for Test, India is ranked number one with a rating of 124, while South Africa is ranked number two with a rating of 122. Australia with a rating of 116 points, is ranked third.

The Proteas are expected to play two Tests and three ODI’s in February-March against India.

The broadcaster has laid out an aggressive marketing plan for the series which will include on-air promos, which are expected to start by Monday, on its own networks and other channels, promotion through outdoor and print campaign and also having on-ground activities with brand ambassador Harbhajan Singh.

Commenting on the marketing plans for India-South Africa series, Neo Sports Broadcast marketing head Abhishek Verma said, “We are looking at positioning the India-South Africa series as the ‘World Championship of Cricket’. We have an aggressive marketing plan for India-South Africa series. The first set of on-air promos is going to be there on our channels from Monday onwards. After that we are looking at cross channel promos on news channels, music channels, movie channels and things like that. Then there is outdoor and print campaigns of course.”

“We will continue with our theme of Dekh Lega India with our brand ambassador Harbhajan Singh and we have planned some interesting and innovative on-ground activities with Harbhajan,” Verma informs.

Verma says they will continue with their strategy of tying-up with films as it has worked very well for the broadcaster. The channel, he said, is planning to tie up with two prominent films. He, however, did not disclose the names of the films which are slated for release in the next two months.

“We will tie-up with two big films in 2010 for the India-South Africa series. It’s part of our strategy to use them. We had tie-up with London Dreams, Kurbaan, De Dana Dan, so we had promos with Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Saif Ali Khanna and Salman Khan. This strategy has worked very well for us and we are the only sports channel which is doing this and we are going to continue it.”

Queried about the marketing spends for the India- South Africa, Verma said, “If we include the advertisements on our channels, it will be around Rs 20-30 million.”