20 years since I hosted the FIFA World Cup for Star; still my most challenging assignment and one of my proudest moments.
The rights were only for India and there is a large non-core football audience that comes in so an Indian face, who could offer an Indian context, was needed. It required about a month of prep, it meant working through the night in Singapore, hosting every single game, returning at 0530 in the morning, waiting for breakfast, then sleeping till about 1500, a quick bite and off to the studio. Every single day.
I had excellent producers who held my hand early on, particularly grateful to Gerry Armstrong, an outstanding pundit. I started with the assumption that most of the audience only knew as much as I did and that allowed me to be innocent and curious.
I wouldn't do it again but it was a challenge that was offered and a need that existed and it remains one of the greatest broadcasting experiences of my life.