There are just 2 days to go for the fifth edition of IPL tournament to begin and the excitement is already building up. One of crickets’ most talked about tournament, IPL 5 2012 will start from April 4, 2012. This year’s IPL 5 Opening ceremony will have performances from Katy Perry and Prabhudeva.

IPL 5 is one of the biggest cricketing tournaments in India at have matches at convenient hours. However, the online broadcasting of IPL 5 gives users an opportunity to catch up on the live action of the cricket matches while on the go.

This years’ official partner for broadcasting the match online is Times Group’s Indiatimes. Viewers will be able to catch up on all the live action for IPL 5 2012 on the Indiatimes IPL website at http://ipl.indiatimes.com. Users can also catch up on the latest IPL 5 news and scores on the official website at http://www.iplt20.com.

Indiatimes got the telecast rights for IPL after the initial online broadcasting for IPL 3 had gone to YouTube. However, the broadcasting of IPL 4 in 2011 was later jointly streamed by both Indiatimes and YouTube on Indiatimes official YouTube channel. Users can also watch the IPL broadcast on Indiatimes official channel on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/indiatimes. Additionally, you can also find more links to watch IPL 5 2012 Online.

Cricket is no doubt one of the most hyped happenings throughout in India. Not only a lot of businesses in India thrive around the sport but a lot of them (whose business is not related to sports) use Cricket as means of garnering users and new customers. Mobile Advertisement Network BuzzCity has come up with their quarterly report which again proves that India is one of the fastest mobile markets.

According to the report published by BuzzCity, India topped the ad-impressions table with an increase of 44% in the ad-impressions volume in Q1, 2011 as compared to that in Q4, 2010. This shows how more and more Indian users are jumping to mobile web content via various applications and internet.

India also topped the Game / Mobile App downloads rankings table with almost 15 Million apps / games download for mobile phones. This is a whopping 26% growth as compared to the last quarter. Most of the mobile apps and games that were downloaded were Cricket centric and 50% of game downloads in India were related to cricket. Advertisers and
developers have taken this advantage and launched various cricket-themed applications, games and marketing campaigns and have tasted success!

The IPL 4 kicked off last Friday and several matches of the tournament are already over. Unlike IPL 3 which was broadcasted live on YouTube, the IPL 4 2011 live broadcasting rights were with Times Group.

However, less than one week into the tournament and Google and Indiatimes have both come up with an agreement where the IPL 4 2011 matches will be broadcast on YouTube too.

YouTube will broadcast all the IPL 4 2011 matches live online at http://www.youtube.com/indiatimes. Users can also catch up with match highlights and other videos on the website. Alternatively, users can also watch the IPL 4 2011 matches live online at http://ipl.indiatimes.com/.

If you aren’t able to watch the matches on either of the above pages, you can check an earlier post to find alternative links to Watch IPL 4 2011 Live Online.

The much awaited ICC Cricket World cup 2011 has already been started from the last week. If you are a cricket fan and want to stay updated with the latest cricket score on the go, then we have something interesting for you. Uninor recently launched its “Cricket Unlimited” service, which will help you to get the latest scores just by dialing a toll-free number.

Cricket Unlimited is a voice based application which will enable subscribers to listen to and browse cricket content via the mobile network. This service can be used on any mobile phone. Even if you own an entry-level Micromax phone, still you can use this amazing service on the go. The Cricket Unlimited service is priced at just Rs.3 per match-day. You can even opt for the monthly pack which comes with a price tag of Rs.30.

Uninor subscribers can easily request for this service, just by dialing the toll free number 52255. After dialing the number, just follow the instructions and select the required per-day or per-month pack. After subscribing to this service, you can browse through ‘Live Match Coverage’ and you can even participate in the Cricket Opinion Poll. Moreover, the Cricket Unlimited service allows you to download Cricket Tunes including the ring tones and caller tunes for free.

If you are Cricket crazy, then you can also access Cricket Rankings, Match Schedules and Cricket Trivia using the Cricket Unlimited service. If you have any queries, feel free to ask us in the comments below.

Once in a while comes a revolutionary start-up that creates engaging products for users and changes lives of many for ever. One such start-up based out of India is Edustrokes. Most of the Indians, right from birth are die hard cricket fans. Children even stop studying in order to catch a live cricket match on the Television. And this is what Edustrokes has made into a platform for educating students on Maths and science.

Edustrokes.com is founded by India’s leading cricketer and former Captain Kris Srikanth. While launching the website Edustrokes.com, he said that any Indian student will understand his/her subject better if it is taught through cricket – the language India understands best! He also gave an example during the launch:

Don’t you think if I say acceleration is nothing but a bowler’s final speed (V) — his initial speed (U) divided by the time he has taken to run between the two points (T) — a IX standard boy would understand the concept better”

Currently Edustrokes.com has three courses for students right from class IV class X. Each course has been divided into 30 modules of maths and science. The content of the modules are updated according to latest curriculum and have relevant sessions, homework and assignments. The website also has provision for an interactive audio-visual session.

Along with Edustrokes.com, Kris Srikanth also launched another website called Cricketstrokes.com which is dedicated to cricket coaching online. The course here has 30 modules covering batting, bowling, fielding and fitness and training. Online face-to-face coaching is also available from Srikkanth himself and several other National Cricket Academy-certified coaches.

via Hindu

Tata DOCOMO has come up with an exciting offer for 3G subscribers and cricket fans in India. All Tata DOCOMO 3G subscribers can now watch upto 10 hours of Live Cricket action on their 3G handsets during the India New Zealand one-day series for FREE. Tata DOCOMO also provided its users with 250MB worth of free 3G bandwidth on a trial basis. However this is not the first time Tata Docomo is live streaming a cricket match. Asia Cup was also streamed live on Tata Indicom and Tata DOCOMO.

However to avail the free 10 hours Live cricket offer, users will have to agree to subscribe to the Rs 30 weekly pack. Users will be moved to the Rs 30 Weekly plan only after the completion of Free 10 Hours or on 11th Dec (whichever is earlier). The customer can unsubscribe from this Free offer before the completion of 10 Free hours or 11th Dec, and in this scenario, customer will not be charged for the weekly subscription.

To download the Mobile TV app and avail the offer, users have send TV to 53333 (Toll Free). This offer can be availed on any or all one-days on 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th Dec. The start date ofthe offer is 1st December 2010 and the end date is 10th December 2010.

via Press Release

With the web taking over our lives day after day, users now want better internet experiences. Take for instance online streaming of events especially sports. We have already told you about the online streaming of Commonwealth Games. Now it’s the turn of The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) which has revamped its official website, BCCI.tv. The new website supports live streaming of cricket matches that are played between India and other countries.

The live stream can be accessed at: bcci.tv/bcci/bccitv/index/livestream

As of now, Internet users across India will be able to see all matches in the series against New Zealand online. However, there will be a five-minute delay between the live action and the streaming’ which is quite acceptable. Not only this, the website will also have a plethora of other useful features such as an online ball-by-ball commentary and scoresheets of domestic matches. The website is being maintained by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

Indian Cricket Team Captain MS Dhoni will no longer be seen endorsing Aircel’s latest social networking handset INQ. Aircel is now running a new INQ advertisement which does not feature MS Dhoni .

Aircel was forced to take this step by Maxx Mobile Communications as Maxx had signed MS Dhoni for its advertisement. Mumbai-based company Maxx Mobile Communications, which owns Maxx Mobile brand, immediately took note of the INQ ads and asked telecom service provider Aircel to pull the commercial off air.

According to Mr K Rasool, head, marketing, Maxx mobile,

We have communicated our stand to Mindscapes Maestros, the agency that manages Dhoni, asking them to discontinue the advertisement which has Dhoni endorsing INQ handset as it breaches category exclusivity in the handsets space

In response to the action taken by Maxx Mobiles, an Aircel spokesperson said,

MS Dhoni is our brand ambassador for Aircel. Therefore, he endorses all products and services for Aircel. However, when we were informed by MS Dhoni’s agent that he is endorsing Maxx for IPL, keeping the sensitivity and his honour in mind, we withdrew him from this particular advertisement

Via: Economic Times

The IPL frenzy is heading to the closing stages and looking at the points table it is difficult to judge which 4 teams will make it to the Semi-finals or finals. However, if you want to final matches irrespective of which team makes it to the semis and finals you can start booking the tickets online.

Ticket Genie has the IPL 2010 finals, semi-finals and 3rd place tickets put up for sale online. The IPL 2010 3rd place and IPL 2010 final match will be played at DY Patil Stadium – Navi Mumbai on April 24th and 25th respectively, whereas the Semi-finals will be played at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore on April 21st and 22nd respectively.

The tickets prices for the Final and 3rd place are affordable and range between Rs. 400 and Rs. 5000, whereas the cheapest ticket for the semi-finals is Rs 500 going up-to Rs 15,000. The tickets can be purchased by visiting iplt20.com and clicking on the tickets link or directly visiting this Ticket Genie link.

Make sure to click the By Date tab and select the dates for the semi-final, final or 3rd place to view the options to purchase the tickets.

Facebook has started to show a growing inclination towards India, firstly by opening up an operations office in Hyderabad, and now by cozying up to Cricket and promoting the IPL 2010 extravaganza and cricket in general.

Meenal J. Balar, a manager at Facebook for International growth, recently wrote a blog post on the Facebook blog promoting the sport (cricket) people are crazy about in India and several other parts of the world.

Though Cricket is not as popular as Football (soccer), it definitely has a lot of fan following, and it being promoted on a social network which has more than 400 million users definitely shows where Facebook is heading in the future after it has almost become the number 1 site in US.

Though Meenal did promote several external sites, the main focus was on how users can use Facebook Connect to easily access the site by using their Facebook account.

India is no newcomer to the social networking scene and there are people who use a mix of Facebook, Twitter and Orkut to keep in touch with friends, but using a sport which is almost touted to be a religion in India is a good move by Facebook to connect with people and grow their user base in India and even around the Indian sub-continent.