CricInfo embraces blog technology (and I shut up)

I've critiqued CricInfo's entry into the blogosphere a bit more than I wanted to or indeed should have, but I'll wrap it today by commending the two latest additions to their stable.

The title Different Strokes conjures up images of Ian Botham doing his best Gary Coleman impression in the Sky Sports booth to say "Whatchoo talkin about Willis?" once per session to the sounds of rapturous applause from the studio audience. It is, in fact, a "group blog" in which a number of punters around the world are the regular contributors. Sort of like The Googler's Gazette, nine years on. I recognise a couple of names from the comments sections of this blog among the contributors.

Beyond The Test World is a particularly impressive innovation. It's sort of like another version of The Surfer, but specialising in reportage of cricket's "third world" - the ICC associates and affiliates. Contributions are totally in-house and without comments, but that's ok, blogs are Content Management Systems rather than a writing style. I'm confused, however, as to whether it is meant to replace or duplicate the column of the same name. (Still, it brings a smile to my face to see CricInfo still using the title that I dreamt up for them six years ago.)

Because of the BTTW blog's newsy nature, I have included its RSS feed into my news aggregator, and its items will appear under the "Wisden CricInfo" heading on my homepage. The Surfer, Wicket to Wicket, and Different Strokes are combined under the heading "CricInfo Blogs" in the sidebar on my blog pages.

I believe that Wisden CricInfo has come along in leaps and bounds in terms of its editorial content in the past year, and is a far cry from the, frankly, quite appalling Wisden.com of 2001-2002.

My biggest ongoing disappointment is the way that CricInfo's ground-breaking volunteer roots have been airbrushed from history - though, to be fair, this outrage began well before Wisden bought the company. If I often sound like I spend too much time trumpeting my own past achievements then this is the reason why.