Is StarSports the new Cricinfo?

For long, all of us have been used to logging into Cricinfo for information regarding cricket - scorecards, statistics and articles. I remember the days long ago when I used to check Cricinfo's text version through a UNIX shell to get information about an ongoing cricket match from an obscure office in Singapore! The system administrator used to walk around the floor like a headmaster scouting for mistakes from schoolboys. I would login to the UNIX system and have couple of windows open - one would be my work related stuff while the other would be a screen with scores from Cricinfo. Based on the location of the admin, I would hide the screen behind my work so that no one can notice anything. Thanks to Alt-Tab combination, it was easy to move from one screen to the other. Gone are the days now, when not only are internet speeds faster but companies are more liberal to the sites that one checks. Thank goodness!

I was surprised now to check the new version of Starsports.com recently. There were quite a few features that highlighted the difference between this one and the other - few of them being:

• My most favourite one - video scorecard of matches that have been completed. Not just overall highlights that exist in YouTube but ones that show the fall of wickets and boundaries. This is what helps a cricket fan like me get quick insight about the progress of a match
• Significant performance - This again shows the significance of few bowling spells like Mohit Sharma's recent one for Chennai SuperKings.
• Statistics - A different view of stats that justify the selection of players in the match eleven - notice Vinay Kumar's performance and reason for his dropping
• Opinions - This is like Cricinfo's section where articles from eminent personalities like Harsha Bhogle exist.

Though the focus of Starsports is restricted only to specific matches, it has made great strides to match the success of Cricinfo. Way to go, Star!

This post is a part of Cricket just got better! Activity by starsports.com in association with BlogAdda.com.

Cricinfo - what next?

Image via Wikipedia

Cricinfo has been doing a great job in providing statistics, articles, blogs on the sport for quite some time now. They have established themselves as the leader in cricket web-sites all over the world. There is enormous amount of information available that can be used for various purposes. What next for the site now? What are the various initiatives that can be introduced? Quite a few:

• Unlock the data -  The data that is available within Cricinfo can be made available as xml, xls, csv formats so that bloggers, writers can do further analysis and publish information. Of course, it is available even now but one has to do a lot of data-massaging to get into a spreadsheet or program that can be used for analytics. 
• Video highlights - Since ESPN owns Cricinfo and they have tie-ups for various tournaments that happen within the cricketing world, it makes sense to have pages with video highlights. In fact, just like the wicket commentary is displayed on the score-card, the dismissal video can be shown in a similar way. With the success of Youtube in the recent IPL, video highlights (and especially dismissal highlights) will be a big hit if that is shown on the site as well.
• More Social Networking features - The site has interfaced Facebook on its site but it still has a lot way to go. There can be other features like trends, (virtual) gifts/currencies, etc that can be added.
• Yahoo has started a feature by name Yorker (thanks to Prem Panicker, Akash Chopra & other friends) which allows cricket supporters chat on areas of interest. This can be refined further to make it more interesting.
• Monetization - With the number of visitors on the site, it is high time the site made it to their use. Ads are not just enough. There needs to be other features that increase the revene - this is where they can innovate further.
• Fantasy Cricket - Considering the fact that Fantasy Leagues are all over the web-world, the one prevalent in Cricinfo can be further enhanced for increased adoption.

Of course, these are but a few of the features that can be enhanced. A lot more can be done once more inputs from the viewers are considered. What do you think?

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Batsmen with more than 9000 runs

Thanks to the information available on Cricinfo website and Google's gadgets, I could create a gadget that shows the way each of the Great batsmen reached 9000 runs and beyond. Finally, there is just one person who stays on the chart - no points for guessing who - SACHIN TENDULKAR!!!



Feel free to try out various options on the chart and see how the comparison works.

The best way is to see the #Innings, Alphabetic order of batsmen, Average on each of the three axis - this is a good way to see who was faster to the milestones.

Updated the chart for players till matches held until 10th August 2010