NEWS: Kumble spins software for football and tennis

[FREDERICK NORONHA <fred@bytesforall.org>]

Kumble spins software for football and tennis

By Imran Qureshi, Indo-Asian News Service

Bangalore, Nov 28 (IANS) Indian cricketer Anil Kumble may not be
 heading for New Zealand with his team to spin googlies, but his IT
 company is attempting to bowl football and tennis bodies over with
 its software.

Bangalore-based StumpVision, promoted by Anil and his brother
 Dinesh, has submitted prototypes of its software to the South
 Africa football association and for the ATP Masters tournament in
 that country. Both prototypes are being evaluated.

"Dinesh Kumble is in South Africa to close certain deals for World
 Cup Cricket 2003. We are also in talks with various football and
 tennis bodies to leverage on their experience and requirements to
 make it as comprehensive as our cricket software," Deepak Patil,
 the StumpVision CEO, told IANS.

StumpVision's cricket information management system, or CrIMS
 software, has been deployed by the Karnataka State Cricket
 Association (KSCA). It offers database about players' showing,
 statistics, graphics as well as an accounting package.

"The data in our cricket software is an encyclopaedia. We have
 details of all the Test matches played since 1887 and one-day
 internationals since 1971. In fact it has ball-by-ball performance
 since 1999," says V. Krishnan, the chief technology officer.

"There are two products that we have for football and tennis. The
 analytical one captures information as the game progresses,
 assesses performance and helps in deciding strategy. The other is
 the services segment that provides database like statistics,
 players' performance along with TV graphics that would assist
 sports bodies," adds Krishnan.

Details of the global market for sports software are not available,
 but StumpVision's aim is to campaign for allocation of a "very
 small percentage" of the budgets of cash-rich sports bodies in
 football and tennis towards IT, says Krishnan.

In India alone, there are 28 cricket associations and a smaller
 number of football and tennis bodies. But StumpVision is looking at
 the global market for football in South Asia and Europe and for
 tennis in Europe and the U.S.

For the cricket World Cup, the company is launching an interactive
 CD-ROM, Cricket Safari, an encyclopaedia-cum-interactive multimedia
 quiz.

--Indo-Asian News Service