Many decades ago, radio commentary used to be the best way to catch the cricket action. Then came live television. It may now well be the age of data, delivered live over smartphones and shareable on social media.
Cricket analytics and content firms, which came up in recent years to serve the burgeoning needs of professional teams in an era of non-stop cricket, now recognise they have a new audience to serve. This, even as they are finding newer ways to help teams make better decisions and players iron out their grey areas. “Today’s kids are born with smartphones, so we have to change the way cricket is served. The way cricket is consumed has also changed,” says S. Ramakrishnan, founder director of SportsMechanics, a sports analytics firm.
Mr. Ramakrishnan was formerly a video analyst with the Indian cricket team. Sachin Tendulkar’s wife, Anjali Tendulkar, and Virender Sehwag’s wife, Aarti Sehwag, are shareholders in SportsMechanics.
“Gone are the days when people chased cricket. It is cricket that is running behind fans with data and scorecards,” Mr. Ramakrishnan says. His idea is to keep cricket fans engaged without their having to watch it live, which is possible because of mobile Internet. So a fan travelling in a bus will not only be able to have an informed opinion about a match currently taking place but also can be in a position to share that immediately on social media.
This IPL season, SportsMechanics is working with Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore to help increase engagement with fans by serving up analytics and infographics. Mr. Ramakrishnan says the banter in social media starts one hour before a game commences and tapers down well after it is over. A data insert for Chennai Super Kings received 30,000 hits on Facebook in just one hour. “The fans will start consuming more and develop stickiness once they get used to analytics-driven fan engagement,” he says.
SportsMechanics now wants to hive off the cricket part of the business into a separate “cricket cloud.” In IT terminology, cloud means making available services over the Internet.
“Through data and facts, we can tell about the game today. We have a mix of data scientists and domain experts,” says Mr. Ramakrishnan, who is all set to release free apps in a month. Harish Bijoor, brand expert and CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, says, “With data, the fan is going to be made more intelligent, interactive and more participative. It makes the game more granular.” But, he says, “Anecdotally, research and analysis of data is only as good as the entity which does it. So you ought to be cautious.”
People don’t chase cricket now. It’s cricket that is running behind fans with data
