History of CricInfo
Gilly's Danda
for something else. It appears to tell a rather different story of
CricInfo's genesis than the wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/ESPNcricinfo), which only really mentions Simon King by name.
The bluwiki account is much more in line with what I remember of
CricInfo's early days. I started following Cricket heavily on the
internet about 1995 or 1996, and remember being at the home of some
friends with a dialup connection during the World Cup in 1996 and
wanting to get results of an India game that wasn't being broadcast.
So we went to CricInfo, which - depending on whether you were in
Netscape or Internet Explorer - had either a white or a grey
background for scorecards that refreshed every five minutes. There was
a K.S. Rao who would regularly contribute updates, and a bunch other
names (Neeran Karnik seems familiar?) who would provide commentary.
And I first made contact with Rick Eyre, who kindly accepted a few
contributions to the Googler's Gazette from me. I only discovered rsc
afterwards.
That said, the diverging stories raise some interesting questions
(from a legal standpoint at least). The wikipedia page suggests a
value of CI of US$150 million - presumably based on the amount that
ESPN paid for the merger/acquisition when it took place. From a legal
standpoint, it strikes me as odd that something that was initially a
collaborative enterprise could have been sold like that. There's also
reference made to a company being incorporated in 1996 - presumably
most contributors were shareholders, and thus shared in the sale value
at some point (either before or at the time that ESPN became a big
part of things)? Does anyone know more about this aspect of things?
Many thanks,
A
John Hall
<1db67b65-2792-4e70...@d12g2000vbz.googlegroups.com>,
Gilly's Danda <finally...@gmail.com> writes:
>I just came across http://bluwiki.com/go/CricInfo_History when looking
>for something else. It appears to tell a rather different story of
>CricInfo's genesis than the wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/
>wiki/ESPNcricinfo), which only really mentions Simon King by name.
Fascinating article. Thank for linking to it.
--
John Hall
"The covers of this book are too far apart."
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
Bob Dubery
wrote:
>
> That said, the diverging stories raise some interesting questions
> (from a legal standpoint at least). The wikipedia page suggests a
> value of CI of US$150 million - presumably based on the amount that
> ESPN paid for the merger/acquisition when it took place. From a legal
> standpoint, it strikes me as odd that something that was initially a
> collaborative enterprise could have been sold like that. There's also
> reference made to a company being incorporated in 1996 - presumably
> most contributors were shareholders, and thus shared in the sale value
> at some point (either before or at the time that ESPN became a big
> part of things)? Does anyone know more about this aspect of things?
I can offer some personal recollections. I was involved, on a
voluntary basis, with the SA end of things round about '96/97. It was
clear then that CI needed to become more professional and was becoming
more professional. A deal had been done that CI would manage the
official internet presence for the UCBSA, and plans were afoot to
interface dougie with the scoring package used at the grounds (if that
was the same at all grounds, I don't know if this plan was ever
realised). IIRC a couple of people started getting paid at that time,
and there was an intent to start compensating scorers for their time.
We also started working from the press boxes in the ground and had
press passes for match days - certainly at the Wanderers.
A company had to be formed really. CI had advanced to a certain point,
and to get further it was going to have to become more professional,
more "official" so that it could forge relationships with boards and
grounds and also stop other companies simply picking up and reposting
the CI live scores.I don't think anybody saw or even imagined the sale
to Wisden, let alone the eventual purchase by ESPN. Had we known we
might have insisted on some small print we could invoke at a later
date :-)
Vicky
Ha :) tell me about it, Bob D....
Vicky:
arahim
Right now a very interesting case on the sale of Huffington Post is
going on where the volunteer contributers are claiming compensation
even with lack of any such paperwork.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=135351011
