Ravi Shastri, Perizaad Zorabian and Darain Shahidi at the city launch

One is a Ranji player-turned-income tax inspector. Another is a radio jockey and the captain of his ?gully? cricket team. The third is a media planner with an MBA under his belt, while the fourth is a cyber caf? owner in Shimla.

Despite the varied backgrounds, what binds Padamjeet Sherawat, Manish Vallicha, Anand Narsimhan and Puneet Pal Singh is the love for sport, and more importantly now, the chance to land a dream job in ESPN STAR Sports? Harsha Ki Khoj.

?It feels absolutely great,? exclaims Manish from Mumbai, hours before boarding the flight to Singapore. He will be joined there by the other three finalists for the deciding stint at the ESPN STAR Sports studios. The episode will be broadcast live on March 10, where contestants will work in the newsroom and present segments on Sportscenter and Sportsline.

?It has been an excellent experience overall,? says Harsha Bhogle, who feels ?humbled? that the channel decided to name the show after him. ?It was the first year and we didn?t know what to expect, but we were overjoyed to see so many people wanting to enter,? Harsha offers.

Now for some stats. More than 44,000 individual entries came in and over 1,00,000 minutes of commentary clips were recorded over telephone lines. This followed a jury comprising Harsha, Wasim Akram, Ravi Shastri, Arun Lal, John Dykes, Darain Shahidi, Jason Dasey and Perizaad Zorabian travelling to six cities over five weeks auditioning over 750 contestants to choose 32 finalists.

The 32 then shared the commentary box with Sunil Gavaskar, Akram, Shastri and other ESPN commentators during the India-Bangladesh Test series last December.

A few screenings later and aided by SMS votes by the audience, 20 remained. Even more rigours followed ? including a studio session where the contestants were put into situations where things go terribly wrong ? till the quartet emerged. But is it unfair to put someone through so much and expect him to perform consistently? ?That?s how things are if you have to win a competition, but it helps a candidate to be prepared for everything,? is Harsha?s explanation.

The top eight or nine contestants, according to Harsha, were truly special. ?Their confidence before the camera was unbelievable and they performed much better than when I started out in 1994-95. A reason could be they have watched quality television which I hadn?t,? he admits.

?You never know what you can do till you?ve done it,? feels Puneet Pal Singh, the cyber caf? owner. He should know, since right before the quarterfinals, his sister got killed. ?But the judges allowed me to go home. I?ll always remember that gesture,? he says.

These gestures are some of the things that make this contest stand out, feels Harsha. ?Why would anyone want to enter a contest where the judges are rude?? he wonders. ?We ensured that the jury was pleasant and offered every chance to the contestants to give their best.?

Though SMS voting is a component in the finals, nothing will be left to chance, since the judges would make the ultimate decision. But as Harsha says, it?s how badly someone wants it that will be the clincher. For, as Manish says: ?It?s not another contest where you win and get a bag full of money. Your dream begins with the job.?