Watch the Ashes on your phone

A CHANCE remark made at the recent MEX handset usability forum in London, got the INQ thinking. Despite the fact that Vodafone sponsors the cricket, there really hasn't been much noise about how to follow the key 3-day match (the Ashes) via your mobile phone.

Many offices will have banned employees from following the game via the TV and the Internet. So what can you do? The obvious answer is to use your mobile phone.

The good news is that all the operator portals the INQ tried, were offering cricket coverage. Even 3, which is lucky because it's a wall-garden and you can't get to independent sites.

3's service appears to be courtesy of Cricket365 but the 3 site seems keener on selling you 'cricket babes' than actually supplying live coverage. Those on Vodafone Live! simply need to select 'Sport' and then 'Cricket', to get the news.

Those Vodafone subscribers who are also 3G customers can also access exclusive video coverage of every wicket taken throughout England's international home games.

The INQ was surprised at how good Orange's coverage of the Ashes was. It was claiming to have input from both Sky Sports and Cricket365 but they both looked remarkably similar. Interestingly Orange plugged a live audio feed from Clubcall cricket. You have to call 177, then press 2 followed by 3 on your Orange phone. The catch is that it costs 40 pence per minute.

The network operators will also send cricket updates to your mobile phone via SMS. On Orange, for example, you select the 'Orange Plus' option from the handset's menu and pick Information. Follow that by 'Sport', 'cricket' and 'England'.

The INQ has previously covered an application for Symbian smartphones which can be downloaded from Cricinfo. See Cricket news beamed to smartphones.

What about independent sites via WAP? Whatever you do don't try wap.cricket365.com because that has mysteriously mutated into a soccer site. The INQ would suggest you try the Beeb coverage. The address is here.

As the panel at MEX suggested yesterday, is there any point trying to download a cricket video clip to your mobile phone? It's bad enough trying to see the ball in a soccer match. But in cricket it's travelling at 90 mph. µ