FOXSPORTS.com.au and The Sun do battle for the StickCricket.com Ashes

Online readers of News Corp’s leading media outlets in Australia and the UK – FOXSPORTS.com.au and The Sun – have been pitched against one another in a competition to win the inaugural StickCricket.com Ashes Head2Head.

Everything still to play for in StickCricket.com Ashes

England’s cricket fans restored some pride for the nation, as they fought back from a first test defeat, to take the second test in the StickCricket.com Ashes Head2Head.

The Head2Head Ashes game challenges players to hit a large total from just 15 overs. Each time a match is won, a point is awarded to the users’ team.

In another close match, the second test was won by England by just 177 victories. England won the second test, played with the background of the Adelaide Oval, with 37,179 wins to Australia’s 37,002.

Previously, Australia had won the first test by just 69 victories. From a total of 42,363 matches. Australia won the first online test with 21,216 wins to England’s 21,147.

Paul Collins, Director of Stick Sports said, “The StickCricket.com Ashes Head2Head is turning out to be far closer than the real thing. England’s fans showed the kind of character and fight that the England team could do with. We’re looking forward to the third StickCricket.com test where Australia and FOXSPORTS.com.au will look to turn the tide against the resurgent English fans from The Sun.”

The third Ashes Head2Head has begun and will conclude on the 18th December 2006.

StickCricket.com is the world’s most popular online cricket game and the second most popular cricket website on the Internet, offering a series of addictive and free-to-play batting games. Stick Cricket offers companies unrivalled opportunities to market to its youthful, predominantly male game players through a variety of interactive channels such as branding and competitions.

The StickCricket.com Ashes Head2Head has been designed to complement the leading Ashes coverage available online at TheSun.com and FOXSPORTS.com.au, and to drive traffic to their sites. The Australian Ashes Head2Head game is sponsored by KFC.

The first StickCricket.com Ashes Head2Head generated a terrific level of Internet traffic split evenly between UK and Australia. The Ashes Head2Head games to date have generated 1.1 million Page views, from 510,000 visits and 260,000 unique visits.

FOXSPORTS.com.au reported a 411 per cent increase in page impressions the day the StickCricket.com AshesHead2Head launched.

StickCricket.com has received a more than 50 per cent increase in user traffic of since the Ashes began.

The impact Stick Cricket has had amongst young male professionals has led to accusations that the free online game has negatively affected the GDP of Great Britain and Australia. Paul Collins continues, “The Ashes series has come around again all too soon for many businesses. The Ashes Head2Head competition has compounded an already serious problem for businesses in the UK and Australia of time wasting at work due to StickCricket.com.”