Gizmodo Australia » cricket

If Only The Umpire Had An iQ…

Nick Broughall — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:17:03 +0000

So apparently during the last Ashes Test match, the umpire made a heap of bad calls. I wouldn’t know, I was sleeping. But apparently one of them was missed by not only the umpire, but also the commentators (which isn’t surprising given how boring the sport actually is). That is, until Foxtel iQ owners picked up on the incorrect decision and letr the commentators know via a flood of emails.

Now, if you’re like me, try not to fall asleep while I describe to you what happened: English bowler Andrew Flintoff bowled to Simon Katich, who hit the ball and was caught. Out. Except iQ viewers, who replayed the scene, saw that Flintoff had actually placed his foot over the line and bowled a no ball. After the emails were received at Fox Sports HQ, the commentators acknowledged the erroneous dismissal, although the umpire, unsurprisingly, did nothing.

So what kind of lesson does this teach our kids? I’m going to stick with the fact that cricket’s a dull, dull sport.

[Fox Sports]

Virtual Cricket App Is More Interesting Than Watching Cricket

Nick Broughall — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 05:30:44 +0000

The only type of cricket I really care about are the cyborg ones that will rescue me in an earthquake, but this Aussie-designed Virtual Cricket iPhone app offers such comprehensive coverage of the sport that it had to get a run on Giz.

The $2.50 app offers ball by ball coverage of every match of cricket played at an international level, including the Ashes (and other Test matches), One-day internationals and Twenty20, plus the IPL and Indian Cricket League.

Also included in the app:

# Full live scorecards for International Tests and One Day Internationals (ODI), International Twenty20 (T20), Indian Premier League (IPL) and Indian Cricket League (ICL).
# Full live graphs for each match: manhattans, run rates and partnerships.
# Scorecards, highlights and ball-by-ball commentary integrated into the application: not just a link to the Cricinfo website.
# All match data updated and refreshed automatically (controllable through settings).
# Match data available for current, upcoming and the most recent past matches.
# Comprehensive news coverage from leading sources of cricket news around the world, not just Cricinfo, including leading cricket blogs and YouTube videos.
# Cricket Trivia Quiz with hundreds of multiple-choice questions available and continually refreshed.
# Full offline browsing for previously viewed match scores and comments, news and the quiz.
# Comprehensive settings to enable you to control the behaviour of the application.

While even reading about cricket is like weightlifting with my eyelids, the video below of the app in action was pretty interesting.

If you happen to find cricket more than a sure-fire cure for insomnia, you can grab the Virtual Cricket app from the App Store.

[Virtual Cricket]

UK’s Sky TV Makes Upside-Down Remote For Australians

Jason Chen — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:00:00 +0000

In honour of some sport nobody here cares about, British satellite company is releasing upside-down remotes for Australians—because the two are playing each other in said sporting match.

AU: It’s for the Ashes, obviously.

[Forever Geek via Technabob]

Cricket Australia Launches Its Own YouTube Channel

Nick Broughall — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:33:52 +0000

If you like cricket and are looking for a good way to waste a few hours this summer, Cricket Australia TV have just launched an official channel on YouTube. The channel promises behind the scenes interviews, match highlights and player interviews, although at the moment just seem to showcase a heap of cricket ads, which ironically I find infinitely more interesting than anything else they’re promising for the site. They’re also hoping for users to upload their own cricket clips to become part of the channel and in the future they want to add videos from their extensive archive as well.You can check out the channel here, and you can read the press release (which has all the thrills and spills of a test match in a few short paragraphs) below.

Cricket Australia TV joins You Tube

Cricket fans will be able to get their cricket fix from a specialised channel on YouTubeTM launched by Cricket Australia’s website www.cricket.com.au today.

The Cricket Australia TV channel on You Tube will be an extension of the existing CATV found at www.cricket.com.au and will contain player interviews, behind the scenes features and in the future, match highlights, from Australian cricket. Fans will also be able to upload their own cricket videos to become part of the channel.

Cricket Australia becomes the first major Australian team sport to work with YouTube in creating its own fan channel. CA is also keeping pace on a global stage in the way it communicates to fans, joining major sports and sports leagues such as the NBA, NHL, Italian Serie A and the ATP tour in having their own base within YouTube. These sites highlight the willingness of sports fans to use YouTube as an information and entertainment source.

According to Nielsen NetRatings, YouTube is the seventh largest internet destination in Australia, the number one video site and in November 2008 attracted 4 million unique visitors for the month. Globally, YouTube users watch hundreds of millions of videos everyday and upload hundreds of thousands of videos daily.

Cricket Australia will be using YouTube’s copyright management tools to identify its works on YouTube, allowing it to track, monetise or block its videos.

Cricket Australia General Manager of Media Rights Stephanie Beltrame sees the new channel as an innovative way to engage cricket fans around the world:
“In today’s media landscape it’s become crucial to meet the fan on their terms rather than leave it up to the fan to find you. YouTube is a website that is used by millions every day, so it makes sense that Cricket Australia is there in the YouTube space to find those millions, many of which are current or future cricket fans,” Beltrame said.

“In the future we will also want to look at posting video from the extensive CA archive and in the process provide more quality cricket content on YouTube.”

Cricket Australia TV on YouTube currently contains exclusive interviews with players and behind the scenes footage from the Australian team, while fans can find the full library of CATV as well as international and interstate match highlights at www.cricket.com.au/catv .
The Cricket Australia TV YouTube Channel can be found at:
www.youtube.com.au/cricketaustraliatv

Watch Cricket On Your NextG Mobile

Nick Broughall — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:00:52 +0000

I never understood watching cricket on your mobile phone. Other sports, sure, but not cricket. When 3 had the Ashes a couple of years ago, I tried streaming the first test match. Even with the phone plugged in, it drained the battery. that and I kept hearing what was happening from the office radio at least 15 seconds before I saw it on the mobile’s tiny screen.

But maybe things have improved, now that Telstra’s streaming the upcoming Indian tour to their NextG network. The tour, which starts today and runs until November 9, will cost $9.95 a month or $3.95 a day.

Not my thing, but if you’re a cricket fan, and a NextG customer, hit the BigPond button to get started.

[Telstra]

3 Claims Big Win for Cricket TV on Mobiles

Nathan Taylor — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:52:53 +0000

If telco 3 is to be believed, we’ve turned into a nation mad on mobile TV. It sent out a release this week claiming that over the summer its customers tuned in over 1.2 million times to watch Cricket TV, its direct-to-mobiles cricket programming.

On the surface of it, it looks like pretty good news for television broadcasting to mobiles, except for the weasel-wording that makes us wonder how many people really did watch it.

The specific quote from the release is: “3’s Cricket Mobile TV returned 24/7 this season, with customers tuning in over 1.2 million times to watch Cricket TV with live Channel Nine coverage, replays and archive footage.” Our read is that if you tuned in four times in one day, each would be counted separately. Nowhere in the release does it reveal how many subscribers the service has. If 3 is being so cagey about actual users, then we have to wonder.

We should add, however, that the 3 service is pretty good for what it is. We’ve tried it, it works and it’s reasonably priced (unlike some competitive TV offerings like Telstra’s, which is just a joke). But watching sport on a tiny mobile screen just isn’t that compelling.