World Cricket Watch

BREAKING NEWS…      READ THIS IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING

*UPDATE: We’re relaunching the polling for the Cricket Website Awards 2009 to make sure the winners are truly reflective of what cricket fans think are the best websites out there for the following three categories – best cricket news site, best cricket blog and best cricket forum. It’s come to my attention how easy it was to game the results and vote multiple times. This was completely my fault and needed to be put right. From now on voting will start from scratch for these three categories and fans can only vote once and the results of the polls will be hidden.  We apologize deeply to those website owners were ahead in the polling but we think this is the fairest thing to do (if your site is the best you’ll win anyway). So we’re going to give you an intense week to vote and announce the results in the new year*

Voting Ends: 31st December 2009 Midnight

Results Announced: 1st January 2009

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We’ve circumnavigated the web to give you cricket fans an idea of the wealth of cricketing websites out there that you maybe haven’t discovered yet. This marks the Oscars of cricket and new media and we have nominations in a series of categories – best cricket news site, best cricket blog, best new cricket blog, best cricket forum, best cricket video site and best cricket games site.

And it’s up to you the cricket fans to adjudicate which sites are the best in their categories. We’ve got a poll for you after each category and you have up until Christmas Day to decide which sites you love best. We’ll announce the results during the Boxing Day tests.

If you think there is a website that justifies being nominated and we’ve missed it (we are human after all) then shoot an email and it just might make it into the list.

What? Cricket Website Awards 2009 (The Cricketing Oscars)

How to Vote? Simply vote below, you have until December 25th

When are the Results? During the first day of the Boxing Day Test matches around the world.

So lets get to it…

The Nominees for the Best Cricket News Site Are …

Cric Info

What more can you say about Cricinfo that hasn’t already been said? If you want to find any information on cricket it’s almost always the first port of call. Cricinfo claims to be the world’s leading cricket website and among the top five single-sport websites in the world.

Founded in 1993, ESPNcricinfo’s content includes news, live ball-by-ball coverage of all Test and one-day international matches and features written by some of the world’s best cricketers and cricket writers. The site also includes in-depth statistics on every one of the 3000 international and 50,000 first-class cricketers to have played the game.

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BBC Sport Cricket

So cricket is going back to terrestrial television in the UK in the not so distant future. But that’s still a few years away. In the mean time the BBC does provide one of the finest cricketing websites with Test Match Special and Jonathan Agnew doing sterling work over the years.

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Cricket World

Cut in a similar mould to Cricinfo, Cricket World is one of the most comprehensive cricket news sites out there on the web. Born out of the leading cricket magazine established in 1987, cricket world morphed online in 1996 and offers a whole host media and services from radio to tv, to stats to live scores to whatever you name.

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Baggy Green

Part of the Nine network Baggy Green offers the latest cricket news complete with the best aussie pundits around. It’s also a great place to relive all the highlights of the Cricket Show.

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The Times Cricket

Traditional news media has the advantage over the little guy when it comes to raw news. But the Times is a great example of a site that’s doing it well. And Athers is a really great columnist.

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CricBuzz

Blazing fast cricket scores at par with the live action, ball by ball commentary, highlights, graphics, live chats with fans, cricket news, fan blogs and photos make CricBuzz a really compelling site.

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The Nominations for the Best Cricket Blog Are …

Cricket Blog

The Cricket Blog is the lovechild of cricket tragic JC living in Brisbane. He and his team of writers bring their own unique brand of cricket writing from both an Australian and Indian perspective.According to JC he likes to get “on the sledge” in the truest of Aussie traditions.

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King Cricket

King from King Cricket already has a whole host of plaudits to his name. He guest writes for Wisden and has been published on Cricinfo as well. Maybe he can add one more plaudit to the ones below…

• Recommended by the Guardian
• The Wisden Cricketer’s first ‘best of blogs’ winner
• Number four in Patrick Kidd’s ten must-read cricket websites at The Times
• Number nine in The Telegraph’s Top 20 Cricket Sites

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Harris Sports Thought

Nick Harrison, the man behind Harris Sports Thought, does not limit his sparkling wit and repartee to the cricket field covering tons of different sports. Nevertheless his musings on cricket are constantly hilarious and following him throughout the Ashes 2009 was pure shits and giggles.

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Cricket With Balls

“Erotic conquering for peace, with a bat” just about sums it up. The Gene Simmons of the cricket blogging community, JRod is  the wordsmith cricketing rockstar who’s founded his own religion/cult called “Sehwagology”, published two books and got his own range of merchandise. His blog is extremely funny too.

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The Corridor

Will Luke began The Corridor in 2004 thanks to a rant about Alec Stewart from his Dad in hospital. Penning his own thoughts online The Corridor was born. In 2005 the blog joined forces with Cricinfo and has apparently been a match made in heaven ever since. Definitely one of the best of the host of Cricinfo blogs.

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Well Pitched

Cricket this time from a Pakistani perspective. Umair Qazi aka “Q”, Masud Mahdi aka “Sledgehammer” and Obaidullah Khawaja aka “Obaid”, a bunch of cricket fans who turned their discussions into one of the best cricket websites around, bring a compelling look at cricket around every corner.

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Cricket Current

Cricket Current writes a hell of a lot and provides some of the most insightful cricket features around.

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Bored Cricket Crazy Indians

The darker side and funnier side of Indian cricket. Bored Cricket Crazy Indians (BCC!) has Bored Members, who meet for Bored Meetings and sing the Bored Anthem. On site are characters like Jatman (Sehwag), Che (Cheteshwar Pujara), Yawn T Roads, Bored Peon & Bored Neon; there’s the thankless ‘Thank You Sachin!’ Group and the pointless FreeSanth venture.

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Poshin’s World

Cricket and humour combined in this eye catching blog. He’s one of the most passionate cricket fans out there who lives and breathes the game. His blog shows that.

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The Nominations for the Best New Cricket Blog Are …

Against the Spin

This is the number 1 place to go if you’re a big enough cricket tragic to love the most insane cricket statistics possible. This site is literally the ultimate in the physics of cricket and the outcome of potential matches. It is cricket from a statistical perspective.

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Thoughts from the dustbin

The story is intriguing and the SidtheGnomenator tells it best. So here it is:

“Yes, this is a cricket blog. Why the non-cricket title? When I started out, this was meant to be a general blog with random entries consisting of random thoughts – hence, thoughts from the dustbin of my mind. As those thoughts started to gravitate from “dustbin” to screen, however, it soon became clear that a great many of my thoughts are about cricket. So, the name stayed, the URL stayed, the content got more streamlined. There you have it.”

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Pongo Cricket

Talk about bursting onto the scene. They might be heavily backed by Yorkshire and a lot of famous faces but some of their blogs/columnists are absolutely great. Definitely worth a look and a vote.

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Paddle Sweep

“Where cricket is a stream of thought”. A relative newcomer to the cricketing blogosphere the paddle sweep kicks it with hilarity and a vigour so innovative it’s comparable to the “Dilscoop” even. Check this one out and get voting.

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Test Match Sofa

These guys have to be one of the funniest new arrivals into the crazy world of online cricket. It’s so much more than a blog but we don’t have a category that can describe what they’re doing. Test Match Sofa is the alternative cricket commentary with an irreverent approach that beats the pants off the BBC or your regular cricket commentary. Mute your TV and get these guys guiding you through the action.

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The Nominations for the Best Cricket Video Site …

Cricket Crowd

Cricket Crowd brings you a whole host of different video content. You can watch all the cricket highlights as they happen, golden moments from the past and the latest controversies in video format.

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Cricket Tube

The cricketing version of youtube brings you all the highlights right after they happen and funny video clips alike.

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Cricket U

Features some of the most classic matches, innings and catches you could possibly see in cricket.

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CricHotline

Is a cricket blog that also offers links to live streaming. It’s best feature however is showing a longer form of cricket highlights than other cricket sites. So if you like to sit down and savour your highlights and miss very few balls CricHotline is the site for you.

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Cricket Nirvana This is the place to go if you want to see all the Indian highlight online. It mixes it up with some really great video content and good news and features to match. They also webcast all the matches played in India live. Definitely worth a look.

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Cricket Online TV

Watch free online cricket highlights videos and clips, cricket players videos from Australia, India, Pakistan, England, West Indies, Sri Lanka, South Africa and much much more places. Seen by many as the pinnacle of cricket video sites.

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CricFire

CricFire comes highly recommended from a number of cricket fans. It’s seen by many as the most fun place to enjoy highlights and discuss cricket.

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Cricket Safari

Cricket Safari has video highlights and much much more including latest scores, updates and news to cricket fans.

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The Nominations for the Best Cricket Forum …

World Cricket Forum

Does exactly what the name suggests.   A great forum for cricket fans, intense on comments and spam free.

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Cricket Web

A really great cricket forum that’s won multiple awards. Has much much more than just forum posts with world cricket features and blogs to boot.

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Big Cricket

Featuring over 12,000 members Big Cricket is one of the biggest cricket forums and is growing fast.

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Cricforum

A fun forum more than anything else with cricket being their main dish.
Unlike many other country-specific forums, they pride themselves on being a truly global forum. You will find a separate live thread for every single Test, ODI or T20I match played, regardless of which teams are involved.

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SL Cricket

Pretty self explanatory here, this one’s a cricket forum dedicated to and run by Sri Lankan cricket fans.

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Pak Passion

Quite simply if you want to know anything about Pakistan cricket including insights from current players and legends of the game alongside one of the biggest cricket forum communities this site is for you.

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Indian Cricket Fans

Pretty self explanatory here as well. This forum boasts the best in Indian cricket articles, videos and discussion. It has a community growing very fast.

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Island Cricket

Island Cricket most definitely takes the prize for the best looking forum. It also has bucketloads of great content with interviews, blogs, polls, its own cricket show and games. This is another great place to go for Sri Lankan cricket fans in particular.

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Cricket Forum

Cricket forum marks another globally focused cricket forum dedicated to cricket fans. Provides the chance for cricket enthusiasts to discuss the game they love alongside articles and photo galleries.

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Planet Cricket

Arguably the best forum on the planet. Has a focus on international cricket and not just a specific country. Also features great articles, games and fantasy cricket.

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The Nominations for the Best Cricket Games Site …

Stick Cricket

Probably the godfather of online cricket games. We’ve all played it at one point and it’s pretty addictive as you’ll most definitely find out.

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Cover Drive Cricket

A bright sunny afternoon, the sound of leather on willow, the appreciative roar of the crowd. It can only mean one thing – the game of Cricket and Cover Drive cricket at that.

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Slogout

Ever dreamt of playing like your heroes do? With Just Slogout! you can. Score as many runs as humanly possible in your allotted overs. Set new records, blaze many a boundary and see your name up in the bright lights on the Just Slogout! leader board. This game comes from Cricinfo.

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Crickees

The premier online cricket prediction game. See how you fare against other cricket tragics to demonstrate your monstrous cricketing nouse.

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Dream11

Dream11.com was conceptualized by a group of cricket enthusiasts with a goal to create the world’s best fantasy cricket platform, where millions of fans could not only select and manage their ‘Dream11’ but also compete and connect with the global cricket community. They offer an evolved user interface, engaging community features and to bind it all, the world’s first graphical fanta sy cricket game which we believe will revolutionize the way fantasy cricket is perceived and played globally.

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Howzat

This is arguably the best free online multiplayer game on the web. This one comes highly recommended by Cricket With Ball’s JRod so it’s definitely worth checking out.

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Cricket Gaming.net

In just 6 months, Cricket gaming has got a lot of popularity and recognition among various game developers and cricket fans alike.

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