Sport News And Update

Archive for March, 2010

The Coca-Cola jingle is one of television’s classics: “I’d like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony…” Through the years its message of togetherness hasn’t lost an iota of relevance. The songwriters were alluding to elements of life that’s universally loved and worth bonding over. Sure, it was also about selling Coke, but the sentiment struck a chord of togetherness that not even a Pepsi exec could deny. Right now soccer fans the world over are in tune with daily drama offered by the World Cup in Germany. Accordingly, Coca-Cola is in Germany on the crest of an advertising trend, perhaps, and sponsoring a large team of bloggers in order to share the World Cup experience online. And if they get engage in some quality branding, well, that’s okay, too.

ICMediaDirect.com is well represented with employees hailing from World Cup 2006 countries. In fact, we resemble a microcosm of global rooting interest. Besides disappointed Team USA backers we’ve had partisans pulling for their native France, South Korea, Italy, Brazil, and Ukraine. During the last World Cup catching part of a match meant a secretive trip to a nearby restaurant or pub; now seeing beloved soccer teams doesn’t require going missing in the middle of the working day. ESPN360, the free downloadable application that broadcasts the action on the pitch, has changed this don’t-see/don’t tell dynamic. Now we can watch from our terminals, still at the expense of office productivity be damned, but at least we know where everyone is. Face-time is saved.

The Internet is also soaking up and fostering online World Cup communities that would not exist without some of the latest in blogging applications. Take for instance, this new online celebrity in Beijing, China, Dong Lu. You may not have heard of him, but soccer fans in China certainly have. A sportswriter, he started a blog from his living room this past November – now he’s averaging over 100,000 hits a day and has just reached his ten-millionth visitor. All this and China didn’t make the World Cup!

Dong Lu has extensive coverage, pictures of the action, signature podcasts where he dresses up in a fake afro and mustache (think he’s having fun?) and a vibrant messageboard. Respondents to a recent Indian online survey rank the Chinese ahead of Singaporeans, Malaysians, Australians, and Thais in terms of likelihood of visiting websites for World Cup coverage. The corralling ability of this interest creates excellent advertising opportunities, Dong Lu would concur. It’s great that there are soccer nuts in China and even better to know they’ve a place online to take themselves. Dong Lu isn’t merely putting on a show, he’s an enthusiast just like his visitors. That’s the Internet at its best.

Early statistics suggest that Coca-Cola’s decision to sponsor a platform of World Cup may prove a wise choice. Building on their “Torino Conversations” blogging model from the Winter Olympics in February, the goal of www.weallspeakfootball.com is to provide an expanded online World Cup experience with over 30 bloggers and counting. Collectively it helps convey, as one Internet wag referred to it, the “everyone wants to party with everybody” mentality that’s overflowing in Germany right now. Coca-Cola’s bloggers are providing interaction and quality vlogging, that’s fun and extensive video clips of goings-on that doesn’t make televised broadcast.

Early statistical returns suggest that the World Cup 2006 is being heavily followed and watched online. According to Kevin Alavy, of Initiative Futures, the highly desired 16-24 year-old demographic is three times more likely to take in World Cup content online than on mobile and, more importantly, the satisfaction ratings is also much greater with online content, at almost 70%. These kinds of numbers are getting attention, no doubt.

Advertisers, heed Coke’s example. The World Cup is a special event that generates tremendous global interest and the Internet covers it better, more comprehensively and to higher levels of satisfaction than any medium. Since this World Cup is shaping up like a winner for online advertising it should also be viewed as a precursor to World Cup 2010. Internet applications that already make access to information, vlogging, and fan interaction an enjoyable supplement to the World Cup coverage will continue to improve in the next four years with continued broadband and quality WiFi expansion. This will make World Cup 2010 an advertising bonanza.

All of this change and innovation in coverage and yet it’s still the simple and “beautiful game” of soccer along with national pride that draws us in. “I’d like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love…”

Joseph Pratt
Media Analyst
ICMediaDirect.com
TEL: 212-563-6455
Email: joseph@icmediadirect.com

http://www.icmediadirect.com

World Cup 2007 is just round the corner and all cricket fans can think of is how to be in constant touch with the latest world cup score of all the matches. World cup is one cricketing event that every cricket fan looks forward to. Once every four years during the cricket world cup, fans put a hold to all their schedules just to be able to catch up with live and latest updated world cup score. Australia had won the last two world cup and they will for sure want to score a hatrick by winning it in 2007 as well. So need one say that this is going to be a very competitive world cup?

Making prior arrangements is good if you want to be in touch with all the matches that will be played during the world cup. These days, time constraint is a common factor for all people and this makes it difficult for cricket fans to catch up with all the ongoing action in a tournament. But thanks to technology that keeping track of any tournament has become very easy these days, no matter in which corner of the world the event is taking place. So when your team will sweat it out in the West Indies in 2007, you will be well aware of what is happening there.

The internet has revolutionized the way we see and come to know about events. So simply by sitting in the comfort of your bedroom, you can easily know the latest that is happening anywhere in the world as far as the cricket field is concerned. There are several online sites which work dedicatedly towards providing information about world cup score and all other information related to the event. In fact, such websites can become a one stop source for all world cup cricket related information.

That is not all, most of these online sites run several games where visitors can participate and win great prizes. So it is a great way for cricket fans to keep their cricket knowledge updated and also win great prizes. Records about all the past world cup events can be found in these sites. Well it is very much possible that fans know who the higher century maker is and who is the highest wicket taker in the world, but how many of us actually know who the highest run scorer in the world cup is. So all these sites have information on everything you want to know about the world cup.

In this World Cup, sixteen teams will be vying for the title and there is bound to be some great matches there. We will all have to wait and see what action unfolds in the ground and who actually goes about winning the tournament this time. Being informed about the world cup will surely help fans in understanding the game much better. After all, we would all love to know what things will be at stake when our favorite teams and players take the field in World Cup 2007 in the West Indies.

World cup is one of the biggest tournaments in the history of cricket because it surely gives a team the chance of becoming world champions. And cricket fans like you would know the fact that what it means to be world champions. Since the game of cricket came into existence, cricket world cup history shows the records of many legends that have been the reason of proud. After all, every other ardent cricket fan would like to know about the cricket world cup history and the facts about this game in earlier times. Knowing about world cup details is all the more important for all fans as they can’t miss out this information.

Cricket world cup history has the tendency to take you back in the earlier times when this game started off only in Kent and Sussex. After this, cricket started unfurling its wings in North America through English colonies. This all happened in 17th century and in the next few years cricket was introduced in all the commonwealth countries. Well, cricket world cup history is one of the ultimate sources of information for all fans because it not only increases their knowledge bank, but also prepares a strong base of cricket information for them. Cricket is such a game that has attained so much attention that it becomes hard to miss the action, whenever a match or tournament starts.

It becomes quite obvious that world cup tournament has its own importance and so would its history also be. It is through cricket world cup history that you will get to know about the number of world cup tournament held till date. Up till now, eight world cup tournaments have been held. These tournaments have given some of the best performances of cricket legends. Australia has already won the world cup three times and is all set to win it this time also. On glance over the cricket world cup history, you would get to know that Australians have been one of the most successful teams and have defeated many strong competitors.

Cricket world cup history informs that the first three world cup tournaments were sponsored by Prudential Plc and was thus called prudential cup. The world cup is held after every four years and this time it is the chance of the West Indies to host the tournament in 2007. It seems that this world cup would be really exciting and full of thrills as 16 teams would be giving a tough fight to their competitors. The cricket world cup history is meant to create a thorough understanding of the each and every details of the tournament. So, you can go through the details to get yourself acquainted with the glorious past of cricket world.

If you are an ardent cricket fan, then looking out for cricket world cup history should not be a tough task. What you can do is search out for some cricket dedicated sites that provide updated information on cricket world cup history. This option is bets for all those who are willing to find out how the game started and what all legendary facts this game offered in earlier times. This history familiarizes the fans with the custom and background of cricket, which always raises the curiosity of cricket aficionado.

Table tennis DVDs are increasingly popular and in the sports videos market. More companies are producing table tennis DVDs using different themes and formats to suit the demands of the rising number of table tennis enthusiasts. Table tennis DVDs might come as a compilation of film clips from previous Olympic games and World Championships. Instructional videos suited for both the beginner and the professional player are also widely available.

A series of table tennis DVDs that are currently gaining popularity is the one produced by Reflex Sports and sold and promoted in the internet site http://tabletennisvideos.com. These table tennis DVDs are: “The Wonderful and Wacky World of Table Tennis”, “More From the Wonderful World of Table Tennis” and “Table Tennis Beyond Imagination”. The DVD series is a must-have item for most table tennis beginners and enthusiast because these videos are meant to be enjoyed and learned from.

The first table tennis DVD in the series, “The Wonderful and Wacky World of Table Tennis”, is a 60 minute collection of humorous and wacky moments in world competitions of table tennis from 1985 to 1990. Viewers will see their favorite professional table tennis players at their best form, but also see moments of utmost hilarity. From this table tennis DVD, bloopers, blunders and substantial video clips of smashing, crashing and flopping can be seen.

Some of the segments in this DVD that are sure to entertain viewers are entitled: “Candid Coaching”, “Circus Atmosphere”, “Don’t Do This”, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”, “Jump for Joy”, “Nets And Edges”, “Racket Ricochets”, “Swing and Miss”, and “Ups And Downs”.

The second DVD in the series, “More From the Wonderful World of Table Tennis”, contains a more serious approach to presenting table tennis clips and highlights. This sequel introduced a series of film clips from the greatest game matches in the world of table tennis.

It also features highlights from the World and European Table Tennis Championship Games and also those from Olympic competitions from 1991 to 1994. Players and coaches alike can both benefit from this video as they can be very educating in terms of techniques and skills of world-class table tennis players in action.

Featured segments in this DVD include winning moments of table tennis superstars. They are: “Block and Smash”, featuring Deng Yaping, Prean and Tazaki; “Control Spinners” featuring Appelgren, Grubba, and Qiao Hong; “Counter Drive” which features Li Bun Hui, Keen, and Struse; “Power Spinners” with Rosskopf, Fetzner, Persson, Ma Wenge, and Kim Taek Soo; “The Defenders” featuring Li Gun Sang, Shibutani and Chen Xinhua; and lastly, “The Final Four”, featuring Primorac, Waldner, Gatien and J-M.

The DVD also features extreme close ups and slow motion clips of game highlights included in the video. Unique clips of funny moments reminiscent of its predecessor are also included in the video.

The latest in this series is a compilation DVD called “Table Tennis Beyond Imagination”. This video contains highlights of world championships in table tennis from 1985 to 2000. It also includes clips of highlights from the previous two table tennis DVDs produced by Reflex Sports.

“Table Tennis Beyond Imagination” is almost a collector’s item for table tennis enthusiasts because it has the best film clips from 1985 to 2000 showing impressive shots and remarkable points played by the best table tennis players of the world. For 500 hours, viewers will see excellent games in this DVD.

Also in the DVD is a countdown of the 10 best plays 1985 to 2000, including a slow motion replay for all the highlights. The video also boasts of its special feature, that of the game series between China and Sweden, two countries vying for the top win in the sport.

Who likes to miss out on major cricketing events, such as world cup 2007? Obviously, no one wants to. It is in this case that world cup cricket schedule 2007 acts as a helping hand. It is because, without the proper knowledge of appropriate schedule, no one can have access to the information as to when the matches are going to take place. Till date, 8 world cup tournaments have taken and this time the 9th world cup is scheduled to be held in West Indies. The country is making special preparations for all the teams that will take part in the tournament, tourism wise, staying options, various cuisines and many more.

World cup cricket schedule 2007 is the only and the best source to have knowledge about the date on which the match will be held and the venues where they are scheduled to take place. It is this schedule which tells that world cup tournament is going to commence from March 13th, 2007. This tournament will be between West Indies and Pakistan, and it will take place at Kingston. World cup cricket schedule 2007 is a highly informative database that can either be pasted on the cupboard or can be downloaded for having proper knowledge of your favorite game.

Cricket is no doubt an interesting game and world cup is one of the biggest tournaments held after every four years. This makes it all the more essential for fans to wait for this tournament. West Indies is hosting the world cup for first time and they are looking into the fact that best services and hospitality should be given to all the teams. World cup cricket schedule 2007 shows that West Indies has offered one of its best venues for hosting the matches between different nations. Kingston, Port of Spain, Gross Islet, Basseterre and St. John’s are some of the venues that will host matches between Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Australia, Bermuda, Bangladesh and many other countries.

Since the world cup tournament is approaching, importance of knowing world cup cricket schedule 2007 is increasing. There are a variety of websites that are dedicated towards providing the information about world cup. You and all other cricket fans can check out the world cup cricket schedule 2007 at such websites, so that you are able to gather information well in time. World cup is such an interesting tournament that has the tendency of catching everybody’s attention. With cricket world cup schedule 2007, fans can keep a regular check on all the matches and may not miss the real action.

If you are having world cup cricket schedule 2007 with you, then you may be able to make certain preparations well in advance. Say, if you are planning to visit West Indies and cheer your favorite team, then world cup cricket schedule 2007 will help you to book the tickets as per the date of that particular match. The game of cricket has always held a special place for fans and they do all efforts to watch live action. Be it world cup or any other tournament, fans are not ready to miss on any important event.