Brig. Munawar A. Rana and Suhael Ahmed shake hands Photo CricInfo

The invaluable contribution of CricInfo as a new dimension in world media for projecting the princely game of cricket was officially recognized by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in a colorful ceremony held at the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore on Monday February 5. While the Internet Rights acquisition agreement between the two international organizations was handed over by Suhael Ahmed, Chief Executive, CricInfo (Pakistan) to Brig Munawar A Rana, Director PCB, the function was attended by the officials of CricInfo as well as PCB, a host of prominent guests, some members of the Pakistan cricket team and representatives of the press, radio and television.

Suhael Ahmed of CI-Pak during his address Photo CricInfo

The function was compered by Shehzad Humayun a renowned cricket commentator while Suhael Ahmed and Brig Munawar Rana made short speeches. After a brief introduction of CricInfo, Suhael Ahmed highlighted its role in the promotion and projection of cricket on the internet worldwide. The progress made by the company since its inception in 1993 as to how it managed to register in excess of 1.5 billion page impressions was explained. It was also brought home to the audience that CricInfo's website, www.cricinfo.com being the most popular cricket site in the world, was estimated to reach more than 15 million fans in 180 countries.

Suhael Ahmed, Brig Munawar A Rana,Zahid Bashir and Zakir Khan Photo CricInfo

The guests were informed that while other conventional sports media covers events as held, from time to time, the CricInfo teams work round the clock, all year round, providing cricket fans with live scores of international and domestic cricket matches played around the world, a cricket news service, a comprehensive archive of score cards, texts, audio and video reports and coverage. He explained the important significance of acquiring internet rights as a means of generating revenue and projecting Pakistan cricket as opposed to design and hosting of a website alone.

Touching upon the financial aspect Suhael Ahmed explained that CricInfo was dedicated to creating value for its shareholders, working with partners to maximize the value of their online opportunity and developing, enlarging and diversifying the cricket economy worldwide. As for the advantage to its clients, it was explained that the entrepreneurs would achieve a much bigger mileage for their product by advertising on the internet than any other source of publicity. Since with the signing of this agreement PCB had become a shareholder, it was imperative to raise CricInfo revenues from Pakistan. He pointed out several opportunities including e-commerce, syndication, online ticketing, audio and video webcasting among others as potential sources for earning revenue.

In the end Suhael Ahmed thanked the PCB for signing the agreement and expressed the feeling that the agreement will foster a new era of cooperation between the two organizations and will further strengthen the already existing relations. CricInfo on its part shall make all endeavours to project the activities of Pakistan's cricket to the highest level of viewing.

Brig Munawar A Rana during his address Photo CricInfo

In his reply to Suhael Ahmed's address, Brig. Munawar Rana reciprocated the feelings of goodwill, cooperation and friendship. Acknowledging the excellent work done by CricInfo in the domain of projecting Pakistan cricket on the internet, he expressed the view that the agreement was mutually beneficial to both the organizations.

Moin Khan with members of Women Cricket Association Photo CricInfo

He also agreed that while the press, television and the radio were already playing a useful role in projecting cricket, the internet had added a new dimension to the subject. Expressing his pleasure in signing the agreement on behalf of the PCB, he thanked CricInfo for offering them the opportunity of projecting Pakistan's cricket through the latest and the most modern means of publicity.

CricInfo presented the guests a brochure that contained in brief, the history and role of CricInfo and key features of the agreement alongwith a floppy carrying a wallpaper depicting two exciting Pakistani cricket scenes. The function ended with a delicious lunch hosted by CricInfo. [More Photos]

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