(27 September 2008 5:00 pm)

MUMBAI: The outgoing Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sharad Pawar launched the BCCI’s site www.bcci.tv. The site will feature deferred streaming video and mobile content apart from a live scoreboard available online, official photographs, player interviews, profiles, schedules, statistics.

The site will provide all these digital assets to Indian cricket fans globally. Global Cricket Ventures, which will carry out this exercise, is a joint venture between NetlinkBlue Holding, a global provider of technology and enriched media and digital solutions, and Live Current Media, a media company built around content and commerce destinations.

The 10-year agreement between Global Cricket Ventures and the Board of Control for Cricket in India includes building and managing the official IPL site (www.iplt20.com) and the official BCCI site (www.bcci.tv).

Pawar says, “I am extremely excited to announce the launch of the BCCI’s official website which will leverage technologies to bring the Indian Cricket fan even closer to the game. Online and mobile video is fast becoming an increasingly popular medium as video-enabled mobile devices and faster broadband internet speeds enable a 'second screen' experience for users to interact with live action any time, from any location that fits their needs."

“ Now with video and mobile capabilities integrated, the ways in which Indian fans can interact with its men in blue present even more opportunity to get closer to the game. I am certain the forthcoming India Australia series itself will generate a lot of traffic to the BCCI website. The emergence of new media technologies will only help to grow and widen the fan base globally, as we will now be able to take the action into a viewer’s home, office and cellphone too irrespective of age, gender or nationality”.

Another of Global Cricket Ventures properties, the IPLT20.com, received over 50 million page views. Visitors from India, the US, Australia, the UK, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates and Canada to name a few of the leading traffic sources chose IPLT20.com as their online destination of choice to interact with the league.

Swaminathan adds that the company has worked on the BCCI's site for four months. Going forward the aim is to make the site a web 2.0 experience. “Fans will be addressed through communities. Web 2.0 will be provided through Ajax technology. In the coming weeks and months the site will add features like mobile web, web chat, podcasts. We will also offer merchandise.”