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How it began: The JWT servicing and planning team in Bangalore led by Dhunji Wadia and Rajesh Gangwani got the ‘Gutsy Cricket’ concept approved by Nike headquarters in Portland, Oregon, USA.

“I am indebted to them for the best brief ever,” says Dias, who took it further from there and wrote the script in text form — the most detailed script he says he has ever written. ‘Balcony, ball dena,’ the statue of a Parsi gent with a raised finger, the man looking into a mirror and clipping his nostril hair — all was written and fleshed out in text.

Featuring a Konkani song in the ad was Dias’ idea. He shared the idea with ad filmmaker Abhinay Deo and made him hear Konkani music on his car stereo while eating vada pao in Kalbadevi, south Mumbai. Dias wrote the lyrics and the song is loosely based on an old Goan song.

“Nike says it is amongst their best Nike commercials of all time. In dealer conferences in the US, they are showing this ad at the beginning and at the end. It may later be shown in the UK and elsewhere also,” says Dias.

Finally, Nike has done it! With its latest ad exploding on television screens in India, the world's top sports shoe company has done something it has never done before -- a commercial on cricket.
Packed with tremendous energy, great visuals and fun music, the ad captures the spirit of the all too familiar site of Indian street cricket with superb authenticity and gripping drama.

The ordinariness of its characters, giving it the everyday familiarity that connects with the audience far greater than ads with star cricketers would.

Contrary to many previous Nike ads which ride on the backs of sports stars, this ad depicts two star cricketers -- Zaheer Khan and S Sreesanth -- as onlookers, who even get their car bashed up while the game is being played in a chaotic traffic jam.

Based on the concept of 'Gutsy Cricket,' some of those involved take us through the making of the Nike commercial.

Cricket in a traffic jam: "We wanted to show how cricket is played on the streets in India. These players are as tough, mean and hard (as international cricketers). On our streets in India, cricket is played in the toughest, meanest and best way. It also shows a microcosm of India," says Agnello Dias, 41, Senior Vice President and Executive Creative Director, J Walter Thompson.