Rajasthan Royals : ITs Royal Touch

The IPL season one champion, Rajasthan Royals, has gone very tech savvy. One
of the first few IPL teams to have a robust online presence, the Rajasthan
Royals also had the most complete and comprehensive website long before season
three was underway. The website, www.rajasthanroyals.com is a hub of activities
scheduled for this season like contests, polls, player profiles, etc. The team
also has embraced social networking in a big way. Rajasthan Royals has selected
SMS Gupshup as its SMS, WAP and WEB community platform partner to interact and
grow its fan base, both in India and abroad. Through the mobile community, fans
can participate on a real-time basis in quiz contests and games. "With over
100,000 users across Facebook, Twitter, SMS GupShup and our own website, we are
highly active on these websites and have plans to grow this by threefold this
season," says Raghu Iyer, CMO, Emerging Media. The Rajasthan Royals YouTube
channel is picking up and has over 8,000 views already. "We also develop our own
videos and give a first hand look to our fans," adds Raghu. The team authorities
have also added new elements to the teams music video and presented its biggest
and first fanMoochu Singh.

In addition, the team has also recently revamped its online merchandise
store. Royalty points are awarded on the basis of login, registration,
referrals, featured poll votes, etc, which can then be redeemed for merchandise.
"We have been fan centric since the onset and we continue to be so. Our fans can
book the tickets of our matches through our website. We have launched Blue
Carpet Program, which intends to give the royal fans a royal in-stadia
experience. The Fan zone section on our website is a one stop section for all
fan activities, blogs, forums, polls, contests etc," says Raghu.

Rajasthan Royals has partnered with Agilisys that has been instrumental in
developing all the teams services. It has also provided a dedicated team to
manage all the backend IT functions. Apart from this, the team entered a three
year partnership with TCS last year, announcing the largest technology deal
related to IPL. As per the partnership, TCS, which also works with the BCCI will
not only provide software support and analytical tools for the team to enhance
its performance, but will also provide technology support to enhance viewer
experience and provide statistical, user-friendly data in real-time over the web
and mobile platforms.

Ear
to the Ground

To enhance the teams capabilities, Emerging Media has dedicated a full time
team analyst and has deployed the best available software during the season as
well as training camps. With help of applications such as Actionview and Silicon
coach, the analyst captures maximum data from training sessions and uses the
footage to identify errors and rectify the same, thus developing player skills.
Action View provides in depth ball by ball data like number of runs scored of no
balls. Whereas Silicon coach provides analysis for improving technical actions
like whether the batsmans head remains still at the time of playing a certain
shot. "We make the optimum use of Silicon coach, the software that originated in
New Zealand provides a frame by frame analysis of the action used by the
players. It is a boon for our coaches as it helps them determine a particular
players gray area," explains Raghu. The Silicon coach is then integrated with
the physios efforts and a players physical condition. The physio and the coach
then decide the best way forward and the training techniques to be used to
improve a players technique.

After every game the team analyst carries out an in depth analysis including
a comparative analysis of the Rajasthan Royals team as well as the opponents.
Further to that, prior to every match team members have a session where they
discuss the way forward with the help of data of the opponents performance on a
player to player basis. Data derived from the match report like bar graph, run
rates and projected scores are important ingredients in the planning process.
"Technology plays a crucial role in any sports and its helps to take your
performance to the next level," says Raghu.

Priya Kekre

priyak@cybermedia.co.in