Sport on the Internet
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Your support makes all the difference.EVEN BEFORE the first hint of a spectacular English collapse in the Cricket World Cup that gets underway on Friday, you can make contingency plans to rewrite history. With virtual reality and the Web anyway.
EA Sports' officially licensed strategy and action simulation, scheduled for release on the day the competition starts at around pounds 40, is one of those games where you get to play God, captain, cricket team and the board of selectors all in one. The players (Adam and Ben Hollioake were used as motion capture models for the animation) and the ball behave in realistic ways thanks to a 3D engine and multiple camera angles that provide fluid and realistic action. If you turn the sound off, you don't even have to listen to the commentary of Richie Benaud and David Gower
It's an impressive piece of software, especially on a beefy PC. The Internet angle makes it more interesting. While the real competition is underway, Net contests using the EA software will also take place. The promise is as realistic a simulation of the event as possible. Users will be able to log on to a site and download up to the minute weather conditions, teams, injuries, news, and the current form of players. These variables will be automatically incorporated into the game's databases, whether the user is playing against the computer, or against other online players.
Those who prefer to witness history unfold rather than attempt to revise it are advised to stick to the official Lord's site. Its pages are slick and authoritative. Tested too. Since the start of the season it has been maintaining live scoreboards and relaying news, audio commentary and features. The live camera at the Nursery End is finally working too. As well as live scoreboards and news reports on site, there is a free subscription newsletter available to deliver results updates, news and round-ups via e-mail.
All the official statistics, details, schedules, team and player profiles are online. So too is the schedule of live Internet radio commentaries in conjunction with Radio 4. Webcasts reach physically further than the long wave, and for the early rounds when England are not playing it will be the only way of tuning into commentary. Aggers, Blowers and Jenners are ready to roll in more than 20 matches over the Net from links available on Lord's and the BBC site.
The BBC runs Lord's close on features and analysis, but it has a secret weapon in the form of Dickie Bird to put an umpire's spin on proceedings.
CricInfo is another site with general World Cup info and e-mail bulletins, but its links page is its star point. From here you can link to dedicated stats sites, check out the laws of the game, visit player's home pages, contact clubs at all levels, and check out fan pages on a country by country basis. There is so much to explore that it could be less time-consuming to play World Cup 99 over the Web instead.
Site Addresses
EA Sports Cricket World Cup 99
http://www.easports.com.au/cricket/news/news.htm
Cricket World Cup 99 Official Site
http://www.lords.org/worldcup
The BBC Cricket World Cup Web Site
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cricket CricInfo http://www-uk2.cricket.org
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