MUMBAI: CricketNext.com, the Walchand Capital Group driven Internet portal has bagged the rights for the mega ICC Cricket World Cup in South Africa commencing 8 February.
CricketNext has already hosted and managed the ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka last September in a similar capacity as a web site partner, but during the World Cup, the site plans to deploy editorial, marketing and technological resources to draw in more viewers.
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. The site aims to be an ideal place for the 3C's - connoisseur, convert and the casual visitor.
"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. 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," says CricketNext director Pallavi Jha.
Says Jha, "For the first time ever, there will be large scale global webcasting 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 webcasting from Non Resident Indians and other customers, particularly in countries where cricket is not the prime sport on local channels."
Jha adds that CricketNext would also be offering SMS services, with pre-determined alerts on scores, and other match highlights, given their rising popularity.
"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 weekdays, 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 capitalise on the Internet medium given the time factor, savvy internet audience, interactive capabilities and, of course, the cost advantage" she says.