CricInfo.com, the world's leading cricket web site and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) today signed an agreement making CricInfo the exclusive host of the official Pakistan web site for the next five years. In addition to hosting the official site (www.pcb.cricinfo.com), the deal has been expanded to include the production of official merchandise, online ticketing and internet broadcast rights.

CricInfo will now be the official data supplier for the PCB, giving the internet company rights to data sale and syndication and exclusive in-stadia internet scoring. Plans are in place for developing an extensive online shop, selling a wide range of official merchandise and SMS and WAP services for Pakistani cricket supporters.

Pakistani cricket supporters all over the world will have greater access to their team than ever. Fans will be able to read all the latest news and views; follow international and domestic matches live on the internet, with coverage including live audio and video, live text commentary and ball-by-ball scorecards; browse the extensive archive with individual statistics and photographs of players; and join in with fantasy cricket, quizzes, competitions and other interactive games.

"This is a deal of great importance to CricInfo", said Peter Griffiths, CricInfo's Managing Director. "It opens up new commercial possibilities for us in the syndication area in addition to allowing us to build the world's leading site for Pakistan cricket. This is also the first agreement we have made with an international board with regards to the production of official merchandise.

"In the PCB we have a partner who has a similarly innovative view on the development and future direction of cricket and who understand the important role the internet can play in that. The recent series between England and Pakistan reached a large global audience on the internet through our coverage which included live audio commentary."

"CricInfo and the PCB have been working together since 1997", said Brig Munawar Rana, Director of the PCB. "We know what they can offer and the high quality of their product. Working with CricInfo, we can offer Pakistani cricket fans the best internet service available and for it to reach as many people globally as possible. This was recently demonstrated by live audio coverage of the England Tour and ball by ball scoring of the domestic Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and the Pakistan Probables practice matches."

ABOUT CRICINFO LIMITED

CricInfo Limited is the world's leading digital cricket information company. CricInfo's web site, www.cricinfo.com, is the most popular cricket site in the world and is among the internet's most popular sports sites, estimated to reach more than fifteen million fans in 180 countries. The site has recorded more than 100 million page impressions for each of the last two months including a record 111,993,807 page impressions in December 2000.

CricInfo has its Head Office in the UK, with regional offices in Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

CricInfo works with cricket boards and cricket organisations, blue chip companies and the media to deliver cricket content for a wide range of different platforms. It currently produces official sites for eight of the ten Test-playing countries, for the ICC and for a number of domestic teams worldwide.

For further information, please contact:
Graham McKechnie, Press Officer, CricInfo Ltd.
Telephone: +44 (0) 1249 700733, email: grahamm@cricinfo.com