The IPL season 2 is due in 8 days from now. I was browsing through the websites of the eight IPL teams over the past one week. All the sites have one thing in common-an online shop where you can purchase team merchandise. There are many features that distinguish one site from the other. My analysis and findings:
CSK
Probably the simplest IPL team website around. The best thing about this site is the blog that is authored by V B Chandrasekar, the chief selector and assistant coach of the Super Kings. No other site maintains a blog for its team and thus CSK’s website, the Lions’ Den, as it is called, stands out. However it lacks a discussion forum and to make up for it, the fans post their views as comments in the blog and these are in no way relevant to the blog post. My rating–8/10.
Sher-e-Punjab
This site was launched just two days ago. I am not sure if this site existed last year. It is also designed to be as simple as the CSK website. Featured currently is an interview between co-owner, Preity Zinta, and Brett Lee. Some day in future, you can expect the Superkings to fight a copyright violation since the Kings too call their website as “Lions’ Den”. It has to with the names of the two captains-Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh. Rating 7.5/10
Champions out of underdogs!
Probably the best and most comprehensive of all the IPL team websites. It has a section called Squad Tracker that brings forth news articles about its players from all over the world. This helps ensure the site has content even during the off season. A discussion forum is an added asset and the best of all is a separate merchandise store for international fans. In addition, they are on Twitter. My rating 10/10.
Aamchi Team
At the entry, you have snapshots of Mumbai at the top and pictures of Sachin Tendulkar and Ajinkya Rahane to welcome you. Go in and you have a concise site with plenty on offer. Rating 9/10.
Delhi Daredevils or England Cricket Team?
A very good website that greets you with the fiery faces of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag popping out of an animated picture. Another comprehensive one. Rating 9.5/10
Chargers-gaaru!
A replica of the Chennai Superkings website albeit with a much better background colour. Rating 9/10
7. Bangalore Royal Challengers
Makes you wonder if Vijay Mallya is able to spend $1.55 million on buying Kevin Pietersen, why can’t he spend a much lesser amount and get his website hosted independently? The site is hosted in an MSN platform and this lacks the independence that other IPL sites enjoy. While every care has been taken to update the player list, the animated GIF of the players at the top still shows Venkatesh Prasad and Zaheer Khan. (For the uninitiated, Venky has moved to Chennai Superkings while Zaheer has been lapped up by Mumbai). Rating 6/10.
Thank God no SRK in this
As a fan of Sourav Ganguly, I hate to say this but this is the worst website of the eight. The URL is kkr.in and once you enter you wonder if it is kkr.in or SRK.in. It’s Shah Rukh Khan everywhere. I searched throughout the site for photos of Sourav Ganguly, Brendon McCullum and David Hussey but all I saw was huge and glaring images and crappy videos of Shah Rukh Khan while the photos of the aforementioned players have been kept small and relegated to a corner of the site. The merchandise store still reads “Coming Soon”. When ? After May 24 ? They also have a poor presence in Twitter with a “huge” follower count of 11! This promotional website of Shah Rukh Khan deserves a rating of 1/10.
Filed under: BCCI, Chennai, IPL, Sports, bangalore, cricket, hyderabad, mumbai, rajasthan | Tagged: bangalore, Chennai, cricket, Deccan, delhi, IPL, kolkata, mumbai, punjab, rajasthan
