In praise of CRICINFO !!

Entertainment Cricket and Other Sports
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I know that many of my Pak friends here regularly accuse Cricinfo of being a biased Indian site. I , for one, believe that the accusation is baseless and the so called “bias” is mostly “perceived” rather than “real”.

I am amazed how professionally the Cricinfo website is managed and updated. I am in awe of what you can find in Cricinfo if you delve deep into its data repository.

I think the “perceived” bias comes mainly from the fact that many columnists on Cricinfo have Indian names…However I am yet to see a biased article on Cricinfo. Pak columnists like Kamran Abbasi, Osman Saimuddin etc also contribute to Cricinfo. Indian columnists like Anand Vasu, Amit Varma, Rahul Bhattacharya, Sambit Bal etc are very well-regarded professionals in the field of Cricket journalism - not your regular run-of-the-mill reporters. Amit Varma , for example, also writes for The Guardian, Wall Street Journal etc besides running a popular blog site. Rahul Bhattacharya is a well-known author.

Besides, which other website will give you the following :

(1) Live ball-by-ball commentary of such non-descript games like a Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka match at an unheard of place like Bogra and all that for FREE.
(2) Profile and Statistics of all kinds of players - even the ones who have only played second grade domestic cricket.
(3) A search engine with a filter feature so advanced that you can do all kinds of query on player and match records.

Finally, I will only say this to my Pak friends :
Pakistan does not have one decent cricket website(at least not one I know of). Unless you come up with one…at least learn to give credit where due - CRICINFO ROCKS !!

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Re: In praise of CRICINFO !!

:lajawab:

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Re: In praise of CRICINFO !!

Clearly CricInfo isn't only and Indian site. Its like many other Indian institutions trying to cater to international audience. hence its coverage is more or less of those standards, and it is as biased to India as CNN is to US or BBC is to Britain.

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Re: In praise of CRICINFO !!

This 'perception' of bias (though it seems to have diluted lately) was largely based on difference in coverage given to various events as well as content of the headlines on CricINfo's main page.

Before I go on to give more details, let me make it clear that CricInfo has definitely taken a lot of steps recently to provide more balanced (not to mention much more frequently updated) content on its website. The site as run today, cannot be accused of any bias whatsoever. In fact, I am very pleased with the recent increase in diverse reading material on their site, including blogs and columns by various contributors.

That said, let me explain why the site did use to have an Indian bias (at least in my view). Bias is not just what you 'say' on a given subject, but also 'what subjects you decide to cover."

For example, I could write an article claiming that Team India is the most talentend side in the world, and that's one example of bias. However, another example of bias is when you write 100 articles on team India (regardless of how unbiased each article might be) and 10 on everthing else. This is the kind of bias that at least I used to feel at CricInfo, and which in my view doesn't exist anymore.

But I also don't think that this bias, when present, was malicious or unfair. Everybody has a right to cater to their audience, and if 70% of CricInfo readers are Indians, then it's not unfair for CricInfo to make 70% of its material about India. However, it did annoy me, and many other people I am sure, as we used to turn to 'CricInfo' as a global cricketing site and an overwhelming Indian influence was somewhat irritating.

The second type of bias that 'some other people' used to complain about was the verbiage of the headlines, and is definitely more subjective in nature. For example, for the same type of winning margin, you could see different 'types' of headlines on the main page if one of the teams involved was India. However, this could also have been caused because different people covered different events and had different writing styles. One could claim that this is a classic case of 'bias is in the eyes of the beholder' but I could swear that sometimes the Indian contributors went overboard in praising India.

Anyhow, in my view, all these complaints are largely a thing of the past. I myself have been very impressed by the recent improvements accomplished by CricInfo team. Bias or no bias, we should all be very grateful to them for providing such a rich platform to Cricket lovers.

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Agree with Z's definitions of the biases that *used **to exist, i.e. 1. Uneven balance of the number of articles and 2. Bias-ish-ist-ish headlines.

The one bias that i still feel exists is the coverage of domestic or non ODI/Test matches. If its an Indian domestic match the live ball by ball coverage woudl be prompt like any ODI (30-60 second updates). For any other domestic match around any other part of the world the live score update would be extremely slow (300 second updates). But then this is hardly a matter to cry about. :)

Of late however i have felt that Osman Samiuddin and Kamran Abbasi have sort of contributed to the pakistani side of the bias too because rarely have i seen them write an article about indian players/games whereas the indian crew of writers write about pakistani players often.

Sincerely,
Captain Lota

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Re: In praise of CRICINFO !!

Nice thread/posts!

I absolutely had no such intentions in mind of accusing CricInfo as a bias website, neither have I done anything of such sorts in the past. Whether the site carries 10:3 ratio of Indian-Pakistani well-known journalists and editors, it has made no difference in the actual content that is being published and produced, as it caters to a wide variety of audience, from an ocassional watcher to hardcore cricket lovers. Rest assured, the columns and the blogs have praised and criticized all teams in appropriate mannerisms, and with that being said, CricInfo holds a much greater value in my eyes, regardless of the actual number of reporters from both countries. :)

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Cricketnama

:smiley:

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cricinfo has really done a lot of work and put in a lot of effort to gather all the statistics and information and to provide live coverage of matches that r otherwise perhaps even unheard of....

but the fact remains that the commentators r mostl indians and their biased commentary shows up during any match india plays and more so when its an india-pakistan match....

if u deny it, u r just not being real....

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**
well yaar Some1 the cricinfo of now and the old cricinfo was very different, in all honesty, the country you belong to will always fly high in your eyes. I have been part of cricinfo beta (plus) when they introduced way back, now its closed.

the above mentioned reason(s)/ or criteria you said is part of obligation of cricinfo, since they shook hand with ICC.

As far as they being predisposed? Yes they are in terms of when it comes to coverage and the articles by columist, if you didn’t notice then boooooooo-ya to you, here is an example you find guppies here at GS biased huh!!!

and as far as coverage of the matches there are some very good news website who cover the match, www.dawn.com when it comes to Pakistan cricket matches and their “live coverage” is lightning fast when compared to snail paced cricinfo, now qualms that cricinfo is the king kong of cricket info but its not the 100% reliable source!
**

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--

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You appeared to make some sense until the above last paragraph.

DAWN.COM is a useless website as far as up-to-date news is concerned. As a matter of fact, Indian websites break Pakistan relevant news much faster than DAWN.COM.
They have a ridiculous BREAKING NEWS section where they will have few lines of Breaking news of events even the ones as momentous as the recent Earthquake. You always have to wait till the next day to get the full Enchilada on Dawn. And even that is not the first hour of the next day(after midnight) - but usually only by 9 AM (local time) of the next day.
Moreover, the DAWN web site is nothing more than a collection of a rigid set of spartan HTML pages. Their so-called “live feed” of cricket-matches comes from Cricbuzz.com (which is most probably - another Indian site !!) and it is fast only because it does not have as heavy traffic as Cricinfo.

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well thanks for making my point some1, I was only talking in regards of criciket updates, I know the difference b/w the layout of the website, as as far as local news..etc there are other website for domestic news of Pakistan.

well you can have countless argument but when required we get the Pakistani cricket game update, be that dawn or any other source or the most reliable one :wink: GS :k:

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aunu basu is the bias 1

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Cricinfo's "bias" WAS that it was India-heavy, not India-biased in content or commentary.

but even that has decreased to un-noticeable levels. it is clearly the gold standard of cricket websites.

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I made your point , exactly how ?
You said dawn.com was great, I said it SUCKS !!
And please do not compare a web-site which is nothing more than a few amateur static HTMLs with Cricinfo.
Even my own website looks much more professionally done compared to Dawn's.

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I think ‘Z’ has covered some real issues behind this tabo of 'If Pakistan does some thing better than the others, ITS FINE! and If India does some thing better its HEAVENLY GREAT! and then the whole Indian huhaa follows.

Whereas, in a small country like Pakistan with its conservative values we like to weigh our success according to our size and the BIG HEART! Which can not be said for the Indians who can never see far enough beyond their own borders and size.

Having said this, I believe Indian media (All type) does have its biased moments to the effect of its volume, sheer madness for its sports and stars which I don’t consider as a bad thing.

Here I agree with you. Pakistan does seems to lag behind in media volume and the web sites for such purposes,** but PLEASE SHOW ME ONE INDIAN WEB SITE THAT EVEN COMES CLOSE TO GUPSHUP!**

Pakistan Zindabad :jhanda: Jai Hind !

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This statement might be true for other Indian media sources like the Times Of India or the Hindustan Times but it is certainly not true for CRICINFO.

I think the "bias" in the case of Cricinfo comes from the "Pak Readers" themselves and not from "Cricinfo" - Pak fans tend to browse Cricinfo with a pre-concieved mindset about it being an Indian-manned website.

I have seen many no-holds-barred Pak applauding headlines on Cricinfo such as "Younis khan pulverizes India" , "Pak seamers anhilate India". What more do you want ? Should they also declare Pak as the winner of the 1971 war just to prove a point.

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ok now you are making this thread pathetic by jumping the gun ^^ :smack2::nono3::topic: Dont loose your sanity and not everything is written in stones and if you like to express your views on a public board then be ready to except other opinions as well. some mod do the right thing :closed: tala lagoo

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^ Too many smilies, very little substance
I am not 'loosing' my sanity, I am 'losing' it.
Now repeat after me - CRICINFO ROCKS !!

-- Congratulation ATA --
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Welldone Some1,

Your writing about Cricinfo is exceptional. Well, I am really a fane of Cricinfo and I haven't seen a website that is as efficient and quick to update as Cricinfo. I'm talking here only about Cricket websites not anyother sites.

I have been on Cricinfo for a quite a while and I really enjoy their coverage of all the games regardless it's Pakistan playing India or India playing SriLanka. I firmly believe they are fortunate enough to have exceptional journalists like Osman Samiudding and Anand Vasu. They do a heck of a good job covering the games and writing their analysis.

I don't believe that any point, Cricinfo was biased. Maybe, they have a huge Indian audience but that's fair enough to do so since large number of their clicks come from Indians but overall, it's a gem of a Cricket website with lots of Cricket history and has very good reputation. Since the time I have been here in the US, Cricinfo has been with me as my match keeper. Before going to school or after coming from work, I readily log on and 90% of the times, the headlines tell which team won and the future coverage section is regularly updated as well. So, it's a good site and let's not get into whether Pak has a good Cricket site or not. For me, Gup Shup Cricketnama is more than enough LOL!!
Gotta go!!
Umer