IPL 2010 is off to a great start, with a bigger bang than ever before (so says the TV pundits). At EC, the entire team is currently immersed in cricket. You are all aware of our good work on Royal Challengers; but today we would like to introduce you to our BIG launch of the season which happened last Friday, just hours before the start of the first IPL 2010 match.

Welcome to Castrol Cricket (V 2.0), the new watering hole for all cricket pundits and fans of 20:20 - a format of the game which defies convention. In a T20 match, as you are aware, anything can happen any time; but there had to be a way to go under the skin of the game and analyze the performances. Not many people are aware of the key segments which define the T20 format, for ex. QUICKSTART, POWERPLAY etc. For the avid fan however, getting performance data of teams/players in these segments is crucial to understanding how they are doing and how the teams stack up against one another prior to a match, or in-play.

So if you are a cricket lover, may we ask you visit Castrol Cricket, and check out all the cool new stuff in store for you.



This project is delivered in close collaboration with mainline agency M&C Saatchi, Sports content provider Sportz Interactive and Brand Castrol.

The site is a complete departure from the 'yawn inducing' cricket portals, which all mash up the same news, celebrity blogs, tiring analysis and scores. It is refreshingly different, providing an ability to visualize cricket data like never before. What are the top performances in this tournament? Do you have an answer? - if not go check out Castrol Cricket, and find out why the top scorer is not necessarily the "top performer". Aha!




The other big hit on the site, is the live scoreboard, which is clearly designed for the cricket buff, who wants to know that little something extra, than just runs/over/wickets. The hero of our score-board are the "live worms" which keeps measuring performance (of both teams) after every over, measuring something that is not intuitively visible by looking at the score. If they travel together, you know the teams are going neck to neck; if they travel apart, you know for sure you can call the match way ahead of time. A sophisticated algorithm keeps track of dot balls, run rate, wickets taken, catches missed, computing live performance index on-the-fly.




So as Royal Challengers chewed up Rajasthan Royals on the night of 18th March, it was very clear to Castrol Cricket fans that the match could be called very early on.


But Castrol Cricket is not all about numbers; there is plenty of room for fun. Take the card game for instance - it is very addictive and can beat even the more ardent supporters of the game. Try it sometime.




Finally what is a game of cricket, if you are not rooting for your team and betting on a six-pack beer with friends and colleagues. Buddy, there is something for you too. Before you settle in as the "couch potato" for the evening and cheer lustily in front of your 42" LCD, why not head out to the Castrol Index zone and run a quick compare of teams and individual players. Trust Castrol Index to give you more returns on your money (or beer whatever). Just kidding folks

Let us know how you like this new stuff.




and in case the match is on right now, get the live scores right here.