Manish Achuth from Bangalore wins ESPNcricinfo’s CricIQ Season 5

Manish Achuth from Bangalore emerged as the champion of ESPNcricinfo’s CricIQ Season 5, powered by OPPO. The fifth season of ESPNcricinfo’s signature quizzing property concluded today with a grand finale hosted at KC College in Mumbai. This is the first time that ESPNcricinfo CricIQ has travelled to Mumbai giving an opportunity to the quiz enthusiasts from the region to come and participate in the Wild Card round. Two winners from the wild card round secured a place in the finale. The last four season finales were held in Bengaluru. 

Former Australian speedster, Shaun Tait, who is currently in India as ESPNcricinfo’s Match Day expert panellist for the on-going ICC Champions Trophy graced the occasion and cheered the six finalists as they battled it out in the final round of the grand finale.

Manish Achuth was awarded the coveted CricIQ trophy and a certificate along with ₹1 lakh gift voucher by Shaun Tait.

Manish said, “I am thrilled to have won this competition and receive the award from Shaun Tait. I have been following the sport for several years and having amassed a trove of knowledge on cricket, CricIQ seemed like the perfect platform to put my knowledge to test and looks like it paid off. ESPNcricinfo is my go-to app/website for all things cricket, in fact, the biggest share of credit goes to them. The competition was quite tough, and I would like to congratulate my fellow finalists to have made it this far.”

Susruth Sirupa of Hyderabad was the first runner-up and Kartik Puri of Bangalore was awarded the second runner-up of this intense competition. They were presented with a certificate and a gift voucher worth ₹75,000 and ₹50,000 by each Shaun Tait.

Congratulating the winners, former Australian Speedster and the Chief Guest of ESPNcricinfo CriqIQ season 5, Shaun Tait said, “The passion that Indians harbour for cricket is known to all. Cricket is a religion in India, is a common anecdote that I have heard but being a part of the ESPNcricinfo world gave me a first-hand experience of that phenomenon. It is remarkable to see young adults stumping each other with their knowledge of the game and I believe CricIQ is a superb forum for fans to express and showcase their passion for the sport”

The highly anticipated fifth season kicked off on April 29, 2017. Starting off with two weeks each of CricIQ Social and Net practice (training ground before the quiz began), this year’s competition was followed by a four week long online preliminary round and 2 video hangouts (semi-finals), leading up to the grand finale in Mumbai.      

Speaking at the occasion, Sambit Bal, Editor In Chief ESPNcricinfo and ESPN South Asia said, “We are delighted by the overwhelming response we received this season from our fans across India. We believe that CricIQ is a unique platform which lets our fans showcase their knowledge and passion for the sport. Having furthered our association with OPPO, we hope the next season is bigger and sees more fan engagement.”

ESPNcricinfo’s CricIQ, India’s only multi-format and multi-platform cricket quiz was launched in June 2014 to delight cricket fans across the country. CricIQ is now a popular quiz property amongst cricket fans and each season brings in more and more fan participation and higher engagement.