Over the 20-odd years of its existence, the website Cricinfo has grown into some kind of authority as far as cricket goes. <\/p>\n
The site was bought by the American sports broadcaster ESPN in 2007 and is now known as ESPN Cricinfo.<\/p>\n
The site has a big archive with statistics, all of which are claimed to be correct.
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\nBut how many errors are there? Cricket is a game that lives off statistics and if any of those are wrong, then the site would be of little use.<\/p>\n
This afternoon (January 8) I was watching the third day’s play of the fourth Test between Australia and India on TV. I had a look at the ESPNCricinfo site to check how many overs were remaining for the day.<\/p>\n
At the time I checked, the 108th over of India’s innings has just begun. I noticed that the commentator, an Indian named Abhishek Purohit, had listed Mitchell Starc as the bowler for the 107th over. That over had just been bowled by Josh Hazlewood.<\/p>\n
I watched for a while to see if this would be corrected. Then over 109 began and again Purohit listed Starc as the bowler when Hazlewood was continuing.<\/p>\n
Now Starc is a left-hander and Hazlewood a right-hander. No commentator should get them mixed up. They are both tall but then these are supposed to be professional commentators.<\/p>\n
After I sent the site a series of emails using the feedback button, Starc’s name was changed to Hazlewood for one over and then slowly for the next. For a while over 107 had Hazlewood bowling five balls, and Starc the sixth. I sent in another email and then this was corrected too.<\/p>\n
There was no acknowledgement of my emails. There was not even a word of thanks from Purohit.<\/p>\n
It raises the question — how many other such errors are committed on a daily basis by incompetent staff? How are things checked for accuracy?<\/p>\n
This website is supposed the be the canonical digital authority for cricket worldwide. It seems to be as unreliable as many other resources on the internet.<\/p>\n
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