Sports personalities laud new MPL campaign featuring Leander Paes

On Tuesday, Mobile Premier League released a nationwide print and TV campaign called ‘Maidan Naya, Khel Wohi’ to highlight the emergence of esports as the next big sports frontier for the country. According to MPL, the campaign will also feature videos promoting responsible esports and highlighting the need for the skill, talent, and practice to succeed in the field.

The esports platform brought on board Olympic Medallist and Multiple Tennis Grand Slam Champion Leander Paes along with Commonwealth Wrestling Gold Medallist Geeta Phogat for the campaign.

The campaign went live with Paes tweeting the first video out.

Had a lot of fun working on this one with @PlayMPL! It's time esports is recognised as the next big opportunity for India, with the talent we have! #MaidanNayaKhelWohihttps://t.co/E0YLbKcSRE

— Leander Paes OLY (@Leander) March 16, 2021

The video features Paes holding his Atlanta 1996 Olympic medal, reminiscing, before he talks about esports being included as a medal event in the 2022 Asian Games.

Soon after, as news about the campaign started trending with various news publications covering it, sports personalities commended Paes on Twitter and shared their thoughts on the campaign.

Former Indian Cricketer Wasim Jaffer, who has often shared posts that have gone viral on the platform, said that “sports can be physical or virtual”.

The pandemic has taught us that sports can be physical or virtual. Great initiative by @Leander @geeta_phogat ! #MaidanNayaKhelWohi @saisrinivas @shubhmalhotraa @PlayMPLhttps://t.co/1wWas6P3ok

— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) March 16, 2021

Arjuna Awardee Badminton Star Jwala Gutta joined the conversation, saying that Paes’ 1996 Atlanta win inspired her and many others.

Atlanta 1996! The medal that inspired so many of us to try and achieve great things for our country! Watching @leander in this video campaign by MPL was so moving. https://t.co/DfweyCyFbp

— Gutta Jwala (@Guttajwala) March 17, 2021

As the conversation about the campaign grew on Twitter, the campaign’s tagline “Maidan Naya, Khel Wohi” started trending on the platform.

Many Twitter users said that awareness about esports needs to be promoted across the country to unearth talent and prepare for events like next year’s Asian Games. According to reports, there are to be five more videos that will be released as part of this campaign including three featuring Geeta Phogat.

Indian Tennis Star Sumit Nagal too shared the video on Twitter on Wednesday, commenting that “awareness about esports is the need of the hour”.

Goosebumps after watching this video! What a throwback to Atlanta 1996, a watershed moment for Indian tennis. Good stuff, @leander and MPL! Awareness about esports is the need of the hour. https://t.co/xV5FLhh1TL

— Sumit Nagal (@nagalsumit) March 17, 2021

Other personalities like Cricket Journalist Ayaz Memon also commended Paes for the campaign.

Fantastic to see @leander part of a campaign to raise awareness about esports! Good on MPL to start a conversation in this spacehttps://t.co/ubLPTrLBsz

— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) March 16, 2021