beat the box score
“If you look at the scores and highlights, you know what happened. But when you look at the context, you see why you should care,” says PM Balamurugan, Cricket Australia’s chief technology officer and head of digital.
“At the end of the day, it’s about storytelling. From my perspective, I thought it was essential for fans to learn more about the story rather than just following scores or watching highlights. So we wanted to offer a different experience.”
When AI Insights came to prominence, Cricket Australia had an important resource: an extensive archive of official scorecards dating back to 1886, providing a wealth of historical data that could bridge the gap between past and present. These scorecards were carefully integrated over a period of three months to ensure that the information was collected among serious cricket experts.
“We had hundreds of years of data. Trust is non-negotiable when it comes to fans,” says Balamurugan. “When you’re dealing with records and milestones, you can’t go wrong. There are die-hard fans who know these statistics like the back of their hands. History is at the heart of cricket’s identity, and instant context turns the scoreboard into a story.”
“Taking this much data, integrating it, and uncovering a better context for the live game required a tremendous amount of data coordination and validation. Our systems and skilled team made it possible.”
Creating solutions that fans can use in real time
Cricket Australia worked with Microsoft along with technology partners Insight Enterprises, HCL Tech and Skewer to create the new version of the app. With important Ashes and T20 international tournaments just around the corner, time to launch the app before the bat goes up in these important matches was crucial.
The app is powered by Microsoft Azure, the cloud foundation that Cricket Australia uses to run and extend its digital platform and app experiences. AI Insights leverages Microsoft Foundry’s Azure OpenAI Service to generate real-time game recognition insights that complement what fans are seeing on the field.
“What we’re talking about is a really good example of solving a problem that fans are facing with deep technical capabilities and a shared vision for distribution,” Greenberg said. “Microsoft has brought us a world-class cloud and AI foundation. We wouldn’t have gotten this far without them. And our partners have helped us build, integrate, and, importantly, accelerate operational readiness.”
One of the biggest challenges for AI Insights is ensuring that fans watching the game and using the app get the most up-to-date information and context as the game progresses. This will be an additional resource for fans watching the game or watching the game with commentary.
Azure Cosmos DB supports Cricket Australia’s ecosystem of apps, including Cricket Australia Live with AI Insights and PlayCricket, which hosts scores from up to 7,000 community matches over the weekend. This technology provides a fast, scalable data layer that can update quickly during live play, ensuring fans always have the latest scores.
“All live sports have one thing in common: There are no interruptions,” Greenberg said. “This isn’t reality TV, so the experience has to be fast, reliable, and consistent, especially during peak demand and when millions of people are enjoying it at the same time.”
An experience for every type of fan
Cricket has passionate supporters, especially in Australia, but it can be difficult to understand for newcomers. As Cricket Australia looks to educate the next generation of fans, Greenberg realized the app could prevent wickets that can be a nuisance for newcomers to the sport.
“So we’re playing this crazy sport that lasts for five days, and sometimes by the end of those five days we still don’t have results,” Greenberg says. “We can’t expect people to pay attention all the time, but what we can do is be very personalized in how they want to engage with the sport during the contest.”
Melbourne’s Seddon Cricket Club has been around since the 1920s and now has senior, junior and teams of all abilities competing in associations across Australia. It’s also home to a loyal supporter group of fans who love the game in all its forms. For them, the Cricket Live app’s AI insights are an added value when digging deeper into the game.
Cathy Gray, a Seddon club supporter and cricket fan, said: “It’s definitely been interesting to follow the players and find out more about them.” “You can also follow a player and see what they are known for, what their next step is, and what they need to do to get their next big moment.
“Cricket is a game of history. It’s been around for a very long time and players influence other players and countries influence other countries. Insights allow us to understand not just what’s happening today, but how the game itself got there.”
