Sportal Australia has today confirmed its status as Australia’s leading provider of online sports content by signing legendary sportsmen Andrew Gaze and Viv Richards as commentators for the forthcoming summer of sport.

Gaze, the five-time Olympian and seven-time National Basketball League MVP, will write a weekly column on basketball for www.sportal.com.au, while Richards, the West Indian cricket superstar of the 1970s and 1980s, will write about his country’s tour of Australia this summer exclusively for Sportal.

Their signing comes hot on the heels of Australian Rugby League coach Chris Anderson, who is writing exclusively for Sportal during the Kangaroos’ current World Cup campaign in Great Britain.

Sportal Australia’s chief executive Chris Hume, said that the signings demonstrated Sportal’s commitment to not just providing the leading sports news content on the Internet, but also the most incisive opinion and analysis.

‘Sport on the Internet is not just about finding out who won and lost, but why,’ Mr Hume said. ‘Andrew Gaze and Viv Richards are both considered to be oracles of their sport and that their views and opinions will matter a great deal for not only basketball and cricket fans, but general sports fans as well.’

As well as writing columns, both Gaze and Richards will answer e-mail questions from Sportal users and contribute to Sportal Radio, the twice-daily audio sports bulletins produced daily at 7am and 7pm every day.

The association with Gaze will also include an arrangement with his soon-to-be-launched personal website. Sportal will provide links to his new site from all its basketball pages, and will provide a daily basketball news feed to the site as well.

‘It’s great to be part of the team at Sportal,’ Gaze said. ‘They are recognised as one of the worldwide leaders for sport on the Internet and together, we have some great plans to embrace this new medium.’

Gaze, Richards and Anderson join a decorated team of Sportal columnists worldwide that includes soccer identities Kevin Keegan, Robbie Slater and Martin Tyler, Wimbledon and US Open tennis finalist Cedric Pioline, English paceman Dominic Cork, South African Test opener Gary Kirsten, English Rugby Union captain Lawrence Dallaglio, Springbok captain Andre Vos, former Wallaby skipper David Wilson, Hawthorn (AFL) star Trent Croad and pro golfer Mike Clayton, who is also one of Australia’s most respected golf commentators.

For Further Information Please Contact:

tel: +61 (3) 98262744
fax: 61 (3) 98260254
www.sportal.com.au