The scheduled date of launch is February 23, but the two parties-AXN and TWI-have not signed on the dotted line yet. The programme will have 26 episodes, but so far only one of them has been completed.

The remaining episodes are still being made. The investment made in producing the programme or the price of the deal has not been disclosed.It's going to be a weekly programme and the focus will be on soft stories, features, classic matches, and ratings of cricketers, according to the people behind the show. The uniqueness of the programme will be that it will be made out of the stock footage already available with TWI.

Also, the new programme will not be studio-based. Another distinguishing feature about the show is that there's no anchor, rather it will be held together by a narration or a voice-over. Cashing in on the advantage of technical brilliance, the programme will have plenty of graphics and special effects. The target group for the about to be launched cricket programme will be the youth of the country.

Apart from this programme, AXN has some more plans to venture into sports which is relevant to the local population in India. In line with that, later in the year AXN will launch its gali cricket series. To be shot in Mumbai, the programme will revolve around youngsters playing cricket in the narrow streets of Mumbai.

In some sense, gali cricket will fall in the reality programming genre. Again, TWI, which is a London-headquartered sport programming house, will produce gali cricket for the channel.

Although late last year AXN launched a reality programme, Survivor, with much fanfare, it failed to inspire the Indian audience. This is despite the programme being dubbed in Hindi.

Realising that what may be a hit in the US, may not be true for the Indian masses, AXN is going for a safer bet this time.