SAP helps ICC knock ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 viewer expectations for a six

The International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket World Cup 2015 tournament, which kicked off on Saturday, is the third largest global sporting event after the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games.

Further to the announcement made by SAP in December 2014, the ICC's innovative new partnership with SAP, a worldwide leader in enterprise application software services, as its exclusive analytics and cloud partner for the World Cup, is seeing SAP utilise its flagship in-memory HANA platform to power numerous live match experiences across the ICC's network of Web sites.

The result is significant enhancement of the experience for fans and media with real-time data, statistics and performance analysis that will help these audiences get closer to the action and tell more insightful and informed stories.

In addition, SAP is provisioning cloud-based services to host the ICC's historical ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 statistics database, incorporating match data for its flagship ODI event. This data is now publicly available, offering fans a multitude of ways to analyse previous team and player performances.

Commenting on the announcement, ICC Chief Executive David Richardson said: "SAP is changing the way sports fans interact with data and information. In a sport such as cricket where there is a healthy appetite for information and statistics, especially across digital platforms, the ICC is delighted that SAP's powerful technology will bring the fans closer to the game."

Pfungwa Serima, SAP Africa's CEO, commented: "For Africa, cricket is huge; it's the second most viewed sport in the world and the most watched sport on the sub-continent. SAP is excited to be in a position to enhance the real-time analytics and stats to cricket fans during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. SAP's technology provides the ICC with the ability to bring fans closer to the action on the field and keep them informed in real-time about their favourite matches. This partnership is another example of how all organisations, including sports leagues, teams, players and events, can run more efficiently and simply in their pursuit of success."

During the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, all the data, statistics and performance analysis on the official ICC Match Center Web site, along with all other online, apps and social platforms, will be delivered using SAP's technology. In addition, the ICC Match Center, utilising ball-by-ball match data with full Hawk-Eye camera integration, will provide unique real-time insights to fans.

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand, with a total of 49 matches being played across 14 venues.