CricInfo.com, the world's leading cricket web site, and New Zealand Cricket Inc today signed an agreement making CricInfo the exclusive host of the official website for the next five years. New Zealand cricket supporters going online will be able to access an expanded range of interactive and multimedia features, and buy all the latest Black Caps' merchandise from the Internet shop, due to open in July.

The site, www.nzcricket.co.nz, will provide supporters of New Zealand cricket with unprecedented levels of information about cricket in New Zealand. Fans will be able to browse the extensive archive, with individual statistics and photographs of players; follow international matches via live text commentary and other first-class games with ball-by-ball updates; join players for an online chat and read their exclusive diaries; and participate in fantasy cricket, quizzes, competitions and other interactive games.

CricInfo and New Zealand Cricket are also working together for the CricInfo Women's World Cup, to be held in New Zealand later this year. CricInfo.com is the tournament's title sponsor and will provide unprecedented online exposure and promotion, including live text, audio and video coverage.

In addition to maintaining and updating the content of the site, CricInfo will provide New Zealand Cricket with the technical infrastructure for online scoring, a statistics database and all other software for the site. CricInfo will also provide the technology to enable the broadcasting via the Internet of audio and video features.

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 five of the nine Test-playing countries. Among CricInfo's recent initiatives are Baggy Green www.baggygreen.com.au, a venture with the Australian Cricket Board and NineMSN, which was launched in September 1999, and has quickly established itself as Australia's leading sports site.

"New Zealand Cricket has a similarly progressive view to promoting cricket as CricInfo," said Simon King, CricInfo's Chief Executive. "They understand the opportunities offered by the Internet and like us are keen to utilise them. Our commitment to supporting cricket in New Zealand is well-established and we are currently expanding our operation there, with new offices and more people to provide extended coverage on the site. Globally we are the most popular sport web site, and ventures such as this serve to enhance our coverage."

"CricInfo and New Zealand Cricket have a long-standing working relationship," said New Zealand Cricket's Chief Executive, Christopher Doig. "CricInfo is an organisation which is uniquely focused on cricket and provides cricket enthusiasts with a wealth of information. Working with them we can offer New Zealand cricket followers with the best service available and reach more people globally than would otherwise be possible."

ABOUT CRICINFO

CricInfo Ltd. is the world's leading digital cricket publisher. CricInfo's web site, www.cricinfo.com, is the most popular cricket site in the world and the Internet's most popular single-sport site, reaching more than ten million fans in 180 countries. The site generated 95,536,300 page impressions during March 2000.

CricInfo New Zealand Ltd was established in April 2000 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of CricInfo Ltd.

For further information, please contact:

Graham McKechnie
Press Officer
CricInfo Ltd.
Telephone: +44 (0)1249 700733
Email: grahamm@cricinfo.com