By the fans, for the fans

We are a cricket crazy country and I remember being glued to the transistor listening to commentary for days together. That was years back of course… much before the TV made its entry to our home and certainly much before smartphones and apps appeared. Even a visit to the bathroom was avoided despite knowing that the batsman is going to just defend his wicket throughout the over… but then the commentators were always so excited even when nothing exciting was happening on the pitch that we did not want to miss even a single ball that was bowled.

My father always said, ‘Cricket isn’t cricket unless you follow it ball by ball.’ And we did just that. But the world of apps seemed to change this attitude and I’ve seen people referring to one or the other and say, ‘The score is not moving fast enough.’ This never suffices. I have always wanted to know why. I want a ball-by-ball account for every match.

I’ve been told that one brilliant app is now being offered for Android phones. I do not have one and so I wish this app is soon launched for the iOS platform as well. But let me tell you about this exciting app.

The Version 1.0.1 of the HW Cricket app has been ideated by Aditya Phatak and the coder is Javed Khatri… which simply tells me that everything about the app is from an Indian perspective. I love this factoid. More details told me that it isn’t old and was launched on the 12th of May this year… so I guess all the latest in technological innovations would be a part of it. I mean, none of us would want things to happen as they did when we all played Super Mario or Pacman, right?

The press release mentions that Holdingwilley.com is a cricket website named after Brian Johnston’s famous quote during an England vs West Indies Test Match at The Oval in 1976 which said “The bowler’s Holding, the batsman’s Willey”… and the app focuses on giving you scores as they happen. No obfuscating buttons, myriad links, and meandering commentary but fast, lite, simple, and easily shareable are the USPs of the app.

So if cricket is your passion and you want a ball-by-ball account, you can follow all live matches as they happen in real-time. Besides this, the user gets to know the results of recent matches, details of the matches ahead, and analytical tools that use data from the past as well to allow you to make intelligent guesses as to the outcome of the current match. This last feature is so intuitive and I think brilliant because I can now peer into the smartphone screen and probably mutter audibly enough, ‘Well, this batsman has faced this bowler ten times in the past and has struggled every time… so I guess he needs to just wait until after this over to really start hitting. Be careful man!’ You see how intelligent and savvy I sound!

In this world of social media proliferation, what is an app if it doesn’t allow us to send immediate updates all over? This app does this too and sharing on Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook, Hike, Telegram, and Google hangout is a distinct possibility. So with this app any user will be able to share the win probability, match outcome, team performance measures and batting difficulty because the tool graphics are easy to understand and share. There are, of course, analysis and explanations available at HoldingWilley.com as well where one can access live scores with unique game analysis tools like COW, Form Factor, Dominance etc., tongue-in-cheek cartoons, some wacky tweets & passionate articles from writers across the world.

I’m charmed except for the fact that I can only write about it and see others with Android phones doing all those things that I have just expressed in words. Come on guys, launch the app for other platforms as well… fast! One cricket fan waits patiently.

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HW cricket... a cricket app for fast scores

HW cricket… a cricket app for fast scores

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Arvind Passey
25 May 2016