Cricketnext bags Internet rights for ICC World Cup
http://www.cricketnext.com/news1/next/reporters/rep2002.htm
Cricketnext bags Internet rights for ICC World Cup
By A Special Correspondent
Mumbai, January 15, 2003
CricketNext.com has bagged the prestigious internet rights for the biggest cricket event of the year, the International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket World Cup 2003, to be held in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya from February 8-March 23.
Announcing this at a packed Media Conference here today Mr. Sanjay Jha, Managing Director of the world's most popular cricket web site, said, "CricketNext has already successfully hosted and managed the ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka last September in a similar capacity as a web site partner, but the World Cup is a mega event and we will be deploying exceptional editorial, marketing and technological resources to make the event a runaway success."
CricketNext, the Walchand Capital Group driven Internet portal, will be hosting, managing and creating the entire content for the event site, which will have links with CricketNext.
CricketNext, has demonstrated its outstanding success through incisive editorial coverage, interactive features and financial resilience resulting in approximately 85 million page views per month and over 600,000 regular visitors.
Said Pallavi Jha, Director, "For the first time ever, there will be large scale global web casting of the event including live streaming, video highlights, delayed relays, audio commentary etc. With improved broadband availability in recent times, we expect an overwhelming response to web casting from Non Resident Indians and other customers, particularly in countries where cricket is not the prime sport on local channels." Ms. Jha added that CricketNext would also be offering SMS services, with pre-determined alerts on scores and other match highlights, given their rising popularity.
"The site will provide visitors with ball by ball scorecards, previews and game analysis, exclusive photos, instant match reports, international columnists, weather forecasts, quizzes, contests, cartoons and games etc. Thus, the site will be an ideal place for the 3Cs-Connoisseur, Convert and the Casual visitor", said Mr. Sanjay Jha.
"We have created exciting sponsorship and advertising options, which include official match tickets, air fare and hotel stay, autographed bats, usage of data base, and premium and innovative on-line properties".
Explaining why cricket enthusiasts would be drawn to the portal in droves Mr. Jha said, "The Internet will be the most popular medium during the World Cup, particularly for cricket lovers in India".
"Given the fact that 81 per cent of the 54 matches are day-matches (which means that they start at around 13.30 pm IST) and 79 per cent of the matches are on week-days, one can easily foresee the massive response from the office going segment. Secondly, with February-March being also active periods, office absenteeism is extremely low. Advertisers and brands have an excellent opportunity to capitalize on the Internet medium given the time factor, savvy internet audience, interactive capabilities and, of course, the cost advantage."
Pallavi Jha emphasized that Cricketnext had established the fact that an Indian dot com company could become a global leader if it adhered to basic disciplines of good content, high interactivity, user friendliness and fiscal discipline. Ms. Jha said, "Cricketnext will move from being merely cash flow positive to declaring profit for the year ending March 2003".
