The Hindu Business Line : On a strong wicket

Moving to Bangalore has not in any way been driven by cost considerations. "India is our key market and it is important that we are based here." The company has around 20 million unique users, including online and mobile, per annum and of those around 60 per cent are supporters of India, says Tom Gleeson, CEO, Wisden, UK, who has also relocated to Bangalore. "This is our commitment to India's cricket fans," he says.

It's a significant change for Cricinfo, which has not only survived the dotcom bubble bust but has also become one of the most viewed cricket sites.

Gleeson shares with eWorld the journey of Cricinfo in the last 13 years and the future ahead:

The beginning

Cricinfo was the brainchild of British scientist Dr Simon King. In 1993, starved of cricket at the University of Minnesota, US, Dr King used the fledgling Internet to cure his homesickness by creating a site that allowed him to follow Middlesex and England from afar. His determination attracted others who shared his obsessive commitment to making cricinfo.com the online home of the game. The world's cricket fans flocked to the site in millions.

Its growth underwent huge spurts in 1996 and 1999, propelling it into the major investment league, spicing up the sponsorship and Internet-rights markets and driving the early development of online video and audio services. By 2000, Cricinfo had launched as a commercial operation on the back of a $37.5-million share investment from Satyam Infoway (Sify). This gave it a 25 per cent stake and valued Cricinfo at $150 million. It was, in the words of the UK's Financial Times, "one of the biggest, sexiest dotcoms," says Gleeson.

ICC support

One of the site's early supporters was the International Cricket Council, which recognised the value of global communication with member countries. The relationship exists to this day, with cricinfo.com hosting the official Web site of the world game's governing body, icc-cricket.com.

Cricinfo also created and defined online cricket coverage by providing ball-by-ball reporting of all Test and one-day international matches, according to Gleeson. Its constantly updated news and features included work by some of the world's best cricket writers, and its in-depth statistics covered every one of the 3,000 international and 45,000 first class cricketers to have played the game, he says.

Merger

In 2003, it merged with wisden.com, one of its heavyweight competitors. The new company, Wisden Cricinfo, pledged to combine the `editorial flair' of Wisden with the `extraordinary breadth' of Cricinfo.

Being part of the Wisden Group - which also includes the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, The Wisden Cricketer magazines in the UK and South Africa, and Hawk-Eye Innovations, the ball-tracking technology company, — added to Cricinfo's financial and management expertise, allowing it to expand its sphere of business activity and influence, he says.

Offtrack

All for the LOVE OF THE GAME . K. Ramesh Babu

In January this year, the first issue of Cricinfo Magazine was published. It also moved into book publishing with its first title, the Cricinfo Guide to International Cricket 2007, currently on sale around the world and others to follow.

In October 2006, Cricinfo Mobile launched a high profile consumer marketing campaign reaching affluent young professionals across India.

Mobile services will be a major growth area for the business, says Gleeson.

According to Gleeson, Cricinfo faces competition from all types of media and content providers. Anybody who provides information about cricket to consumers is a competitor — be they TV channels, newspapers, other online portals, mobile content providers. Given the importance of cricket in India there is clearly a huge amount of competition.

Traditionally, cricket content comprised news and scores in newspapers. It is only in the last 20 years that TV coverage has become widespread and only in the last 10 years or so that the Internet has developed as a source of content. Now, alongside Internet comes the mobile phone.

Change in headquarters

The change means focusing the business on India and on Indian fans. Cricinfo has around 20 million unique users per annum and of those around 60 per cent are supporters of India.

In addition, the commercial opportunities around cricket in India are substantial given that cricket is such a popular sport here.

Obviously, Bangalore has a significant labour pool of highly educated, highly skilled people, particularly in the software development field, and also in the content and commercial fields, says Gleeson.It is important to mention that the move to Bangalore has not in any way been driven by cost considerations — `India is our key market and it is important that Cricinfo is based here,' he says.

Content

Cricinfo is really a content business, not an online business.

"We distribute our content across multiple platforms and channels — the Internet, mobile, magazines, books, newspapers and TV channels.

We also produce different types of content — news and features both in written and audio format, games and interactive applications, a whole range of mobile applications from SMS scores to Genie (our mobile live cricket animation programme), wallpapers, ring tones, screensavers, audio and we will shortly be launching services in Hindi and Tamil".

Road ahead

The huge growth in Internet penetration, mobile penetration and the emergence of new technologies such as interactive TV mean that there is growing demand for all types of cricket content — both information-led and entertainment-led.

"We intend to be the world's leading cricket media company and are investing heavily to achieve this," says Gleeson.

raja@thehindu.co.in