Growth of public interest in cricket on New Zealand Cricket's Internet site has resulted in the country's first server being installed by CricInfo.com to speed up the delivery of the country's No 1 sports site.

Chief Executive Christopher Doig browsing the official New Zealand Cricket web site

CricInfo, which hosts nzcricket.co.nz, the web site of New Zealand Cricket, and CLEAR Communications which is hosting the server, have responded to the intense public interest which has resulted in the live cricket site this year.

More than 12 million individual page impressions have been made on the New Zealand site in December and January, an increase in traffic of 44% on the same period last year.

Previously, New Zealand users of CricInfo.com had to access the New Zealand cricket site by clicking on an offshore server in Australia, the United States or other countries.

CricInfo New Zealand chief executive Adrian Motherway said today the increased usage of the site was such that the facility to speed the service to users was a must.

"Together with CLEAR Communications, who are hosting the server, we will make the experience of surfing the CricInfo site faster, which will be better for all New Zealand cricket fans.

"The easiest way to get the faster service is to click on www.cricinfo.com and then choose the New Zealand flag," he said.

Motherway said New Zealand has the highest per capita use of CricInfo from all member countries around the world.

And while world-wide visits to the CricInfo.com site are up by 29%, the visits to the New Zealand site are up by 44%.

"We are clearly established, by independent surveys, as New Zealand's No 1 sports site. We achieved that status during the hosting of the CricInfo Women's World Cup in December and we have maintained that position since," he said.

New Zealand Cricket's chief executive Christopher Doig said he was delighted with the public response to the service being provided for New Zealand cricket fans by CricInfo.

"The Internet is a new way of looking at cricket and we can see from these figures that there is still a huge silent following for cricket. People may not always go to the games but they still follow cricket.

"I know that. I can't go anywhere without people talking cricket to me.

"But these figures reinforce the notion that New Zealanders are very savvy computer users.

"We know there is enormous support for the game out there and we are just going through a blip at the moment.

"But there is no question about it, things are going to get better," he said.

© CricInfo