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sambit-bal
The new, redesigned Cricinfo
By Will last year, at the end of May, 3 Comments »
Cricinfo’s production, tech and design team have been working flat out on a new design and approach. It’s nearly ready.
Here’s our editor, Sambit Bal, on the relaunch…which is due very soon.
In my years as a professional journalist and editor, I have watched from close quarters and been involved in the design and redesign of newspapers, magazines and websites. Each is a distinctly unique challenge. Newspaper designs are about the optimal use of space and creating multiple points of interest on a single page; magazines, particularly features magazines, are usually more richly visual, and their design affords the luxury of creativity and experimentation. In scale and complexity, though, nothing comes close to designing a website.
Building a website goes far beyond visual appeal. All design is part art and part science: designing for the web is a synthesis of logic, communication, technological possibilities and visual presentation. It’s about creating an architecture that is intricate, interlinked, flexible and robust. The bigger the site, the more complex the challenge. Not for a moment did we underestimate the task of redesigning Cricinfo, but while we were at it, it seemed to grow every day.
In my experience, redesigns provoke an equal mix of pleasant surprise and vitriolic hatred. But from what I’ve seen, I think it’s pretty sweet.
3 Comments »An overpowering bleakness
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of November, 1 Comment »
Tragedies like the strikes on Mumbai often produce extraordinary writing. Compelled by grief or shock, outrage or justice, there have been a number of great pieces but none better than this by Sambit Bal, my editor at Cricinfo.
I should perhaps be writing a piece assessing the impact of the terrorist attack on Indian cricket, and consequently on the global cricket ecosystem. But I can’t bring myself to. I feel compelled, instead, to write this. I am not sure if Cricinfo has any use for this. I will let my colleagues make the call. It’s been that kind of day.
I was on the streets of Bombay covering the communal riots in 1992, and the serial bomb blasts in 1993. I have seen a mob with swords chase a man and sever his arm from his body; I have seen rioters set an old man alight after garlanding him with car tyres; and I have faced the prospect of being burnt alive myself. For days I left home kissing my small child goodbye with thoughts of the worst. Those days return to haunt me sometimes even today.
But somehow I felt I understood what was happening then. I couldn’t relate to it, but I understood the thirst for retaliation and revenge, the hatred and the frenzy that temporarily consumed ordinary people. I even wondered about a foreseeable future when I could sit down with some of the rioters and talk about what drove them to such madness.
It’s worth five minutes of your time.
1 Comment »Sambit Bal on Test Match Special
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of July, 8 Comments »
Pretty cool moment for us today when Sambit Bal, our editor, was invited onto Test Match Special during the tea interval of the 2nd Test at Trent Bridge. Jonathan Agnew knows and likes Cricinfo, but it was nevertheless oddly exciting to hear him be so amazed at how Sambit (and us) manage to produce a site of such breadth and depth. Anyway, it might be online if you fancy a listen – check TMS’s site.
8 Comments »Lucky? Don’t be such a bastard
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of July, 12 Comments »
I am apparently, among other things, a bastard. I dared to suggest on Cricinfo’s commentary today that India had enjoyed a slice or nine of good fortune. Edges flying past fielders, or falling short; edges sneaking past stumps; balls passing the bat countless times. Yet the feedback we received from our loyal India fan-base suggested I was watching a different game entirely. “You bastard,” fumed one of them. “How dare you suggest luck has anything to do with it. India deserve their position.”
I don’t deny any team deserves their position – England are on the back foot, and rightly so – but the criticism was a little unfair to say the least, especially when the evidence was so damning. If a team enjoys their share of luck and then capitalises upon it, they fully deserve to have their noses in front, as India currently do.
But why is luck treated as such a dirty word? Judging by some of the emails, my use of “luck” implied India had had an easy ride; that they were relying on luck alone to drive them forward. This is simply not true and not what I meant in the slightest, but the India fan is a passionate beast and not to be argued with. Not often, anyway. India got lucky today, but England might enjoy all the luck tomorrow (and they probably will if it continues to tear down with rain, as it currently is).
But it did get me thinking about how much luck plays its part in sport, and of course it features heavily in cricket. The toss, the weather, the players themselves – how will they perform? Will they be fit and last five days? If a bowler gets a fingertip on a fiercely struck drive, and richochets it onto the non-strikers’ stumps, is that luck? Anyway, enough rhetoric from the bastard.
Sambit Bal, our esteemed editor, has written of similar musings so go and read it immediately.
12 Comments »Cricinfo magazine: from web to print
By Will 4 years ago, at the end of July, 3 Comments »
Look, I apologise. It might seem I can’t stop talking about my employers and Cricinfo in general, in sickly “oh look at me and my cricket writing malarkey” but, let’s face it; we all love Cricinfo, whether we work there or not. It bloody rocks. (If you don’t like what we do, leave a comment!)
On similar rocktastic levels is Cricinfo magazine which launched at the start of this year. It’s a great read, aimed at the India market and, as mentioned last December, is one of very few (if not the only one) publications to make the jump from web to print.
Anyway. Just literally stumbled across this interview with my editor Sambit Bal, which is quite interesting.
3 Comments »Whether or not you understand the spin of a googly, the placement of silly mid off or how to play a reverse sweep, fear not. The lessons to be learned from cricinfo.com, which has channeled a large and disjointed community into a range of traditional media—most recently, magazines—may be applicable to everyone.From humble beginnings, Cricinfo has become an Internet powerhouse, the self-proclaimed largest single-sport website in the world.
Founded in 1993 by Simon King, an English scientist studying in Minnesota, the website was originally a mere bulletin board listing cricket scores sporadically updated by amateurs. The big break came in 1997 via a brush with rock ‘n’ roll. Rolling Stone Mick Jagger, missing television coverage of matches involving his beloved England team, supplied a cash injection to buy broadcast rights to an international tournament to allow Cricinfo to provide live streaming video.
Cricinfo magazine
By Will 5 years ago, at the end of December, 2 Comments »
Sambit Bal, our Editor at Cricinfo, has been heavily involved in launching Cricinfo’s latest offering: Cricinfo Magazine. It’s primarily aimed at the Indian market, but it’s perhaps a sign of things to come: web-to-print (in part, at least). Can’t wait to see the first edition.
2 Comments »