Like Helmets In Cricket Kit, Embrace Media And Technology: Ravi Shastri To Players

"Media and technology are like helmets in a cricket kit," former India captain and coach Ravi Shastri said on Friday, urging players to "embrace" both as without them, the sport wouldn't have evolved the way it did in the last 40-45 years. Shastri said while there were only two mediums -- radio and Doordarshan (TV) -- during his playing days, the game has come a long way after India won the 1983 World Cup. "India has won a lot of tournaments in the last 40 years since we first won it in 1983. We made people dream," the 62-year-old Shastri said during a panel discussion on 'Intersection of Sports, Technology, Entrepreneurship and Media' at the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES). "But you need the support. It's like you had pads in your kit bag, you had a cricket bat in your kit bag, media is part of the kit bag. Media and technology is like a helmet in your cricket bag; you jolly well embrace it." Shastri said technology, especially, is an essential element of sport now and players need to know how to use it to build themselves.

"So you jolly well embrace technology. AI (Artificial Intelligence), that's coming into play now big time. It's for your benefit. It's for the team's benefit and it's for the growth of the game at the end of it all," he said.

Shastri said the brand association earlier was only restricted to logos and doing advertisements, but all that has changed with several broadcast platforms coming up.

"I have seen this game evolve, each one of the players here have been a part of it to see where the game has gone in last 40-45 years...Without these platforms, the game wouldn't have evolved the way it has," he said.

"In my time it was radio and Doordarshan. Relationship with brands was only