ESPN’s domination of the world of sport continues as it buys premier cricket information website, Cricinfo.com (link via zaid360.com).

This could be great as long as you can bite the bitter pill that comes with any ESPN coverage.

#1 reason ESPN sucks: The website – Not that Cricinfo’s website is a model for usability engineering or anything like that but I would take it over ESPN’s dinchak website anyday of the week. I mean, a red banner accounting for 25% of the page, classy as a Las Vegas motel.

More on why ESPN sucks after the jump.

Everytime you switch on ESPN, what do you see? 9 times out of 10, it’s the news magazine-Entertainment Tonight style Sportscenter, which covers everything from the Super Bowl to Poker to how Kobe Bryant is a wonderful human being. As if that was not torture enough, now they have it on the ESPN homepage.

And don’t even get me started on the ESPN Insider section. In case you never noticed, there are certain ESPN articles with a in logo. Beware of these articles for they are subscription only – you’ve to pay a monthly premium to read this crap. Thanks but no. I don’t want to spend my hard earned money on reading why some talkinghead sports jock thinks that San Antonio will prove too much for Cleveland and I certainly don’t want to pay good money to hear why some talkinghead former cricketer thinks that Australia will win four consecutive World Cups. The sad part is there are sports fans in Amrika who will actually pay for this crap. I hope free market takes its course in the arguably more money-conscious subcontinent and this concept fails should ESPN decide to introduce Cricket Insider.

And then, there’s the Spotlight section on the ESPN homepage with storylines that change every few seconds. How many more attention-grabbing tricks can one website accomodate?

Reasons #2 to #53 on why ESPN sucks are cited here.

On the other hand, ESPN is the premier sporting outlet in the US. There are other media outlets like CNN Sports Illustrated (of swimsuits fame) and Fox Sports (of Fox Soccer Channel fame) but they lack the overwhelming command on coverage both online and on TV that ESPN commands. Considering the lack of exposure for major sporting events like Cricket, Football … ok… soccer and Formula 1 in mainstream US, ESPN picking up Cricinfo, could probably be a good thing.

But my guess is that ESPN is looking the other way – to dominate sporting events coverage in the sub-continent and elsewhere, instead of trying to introduce sports like Cricket to mainstream US.

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