Says Atul Pant, manager, special projects, Magic Software, "Surfers will have access to exclusive audio commentary, innovative infographics and crowd and in-stadia noise."

It is a far cry from the bland cricket scoreboard sites in the last World Cup where surfers were only provided with updates of the scores. Says Pant, "while other cricket sites are information-based, our site will be excitement-oriented. The surfers will have great fun."

Though viewers will be glued to their television sets, the site is expected to lure a small audience, primarily office-goers.

To view the matches, users will have to download a zip file containingthe cricket animation, audio commentary, database and back-end logic. The software comes free. During the matches, the data will be captured live and pushed to the user machine. "These small bits of data will instantly trigger off the desired action at the user-end, replicating the matches in England. Surfers can see the animation on their computer screens with a time-lag of just two balls," Pant said.

It took eight months for the 15-member team at Magic Software to the develop the site. Magic Software has also developed a proprietary suite of software using Intelligent Push technology.

The virtual stadium will webcast all the 42 matches to be played in the World Cup. Cybercricket.com, which is already on the Net, has registered 1,000 hits in a week for receiving e-mail updates of the matches.

Wills Sport, the premium range of apparel and accessories promoted by the tobacco giant ITC Ltd, is sponsoring the site. The sight screen at the virtual stadium will feature the Wills Sport logo. The e-mail scoreupdate service will also be branded as the Wills Sport-Cybercricket Score Update. Besides, viewers will be able to download the "Come On India" music video, an inspirational song by Shankar Mahadevan to inspire the Indian cricket team. Cybercricket.com has other features -- exclusive match preview, a ranking system that is updated after every match, a number of contests, detailed match schedules and team and player profiles. "I have faith that the virtual stadium concept is going to work," said Pant. If it does, it will lead to the growth of a new generation of internet viewers.