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South Africa’s youngest IT / Media
/ Marketing CEO
17 year old plans to spend his holidays after Matric with a
difference.
Johannesburg (South Africa) : With many matriculants enjoying a well
deserved break after the stress and tensions associated with final
year end exams and awaiting the results– Hamza Farooqui, the Founder
and CEO of iCricketer.com will be celebrating the end of his high
school career, with a difference.
Farooqui will be joining the entire media contingent to provide
coverage on the Millennium series currently underway between England
and South Africa.
At the tender age of 14, he pioneered a website that would provide
cricket news and information to fans around the globe. He uses the
Internet as a platform to disseminate information and works with
other means of technology to revolutionise the way cricket fans
follow the game.
His achievement is that the website iCricketer.com is the first and
only fully fledged website to be run by a 17 year old South African.
Features such as live coverage, expert opinions, and a huge cricket
database from which player profiles are drawn – and many more
features will be available to the avid cricket fan. Besides the
value added features to the live coverage, additional ball-by-ball
statistics are already available.
iCricketer.com’s development team in Asia and the local team are the
pioneers in the design and development of the new look website. They
have exclusive correspondents who are providing news and
information, thus allowing the website to focus on its philosophy of
delivering Quality Content. This will drive quality traffic and
create unprecedented growth.
Taking the cue from the Quality Content facet of the website, the
young entrepreneur has launched iCricketer.com/Syndication. This
division of the website is providing actual cricket content to some
of South Africa’s most important and influential media brands.
Already in the stable are the likes of Radio 702, ETV and Lotus FM.
Farooqui himself is providing live crossings to a host of community
stations in South Africa.
A professional crew of journalists are contributing to these media
brands under the group name of iCricketer.com. Besides traditional
media syndication, South Africa’s leading online brands are taking
live cricket feeds from the website and linking back to the main
iCricketer.com portal, resulting in greater traffic and a widest
possible audience. The youngster’s website has the potential to
notch up in excess of 20 million users in South Africa alone.
Keeping the entrepreneurial flair, the 17 year old CEO, has
partnered up with the country’s leading Cellular value added service
provider - CoinTel, to develop a product called The Cricket Centre.
Fans from anywhere in the world can call the Cricket Centre on
082-231-1818 and catch the latest live cricket scores of the English
tour to South Africa, as well as the tri-angular series, daily news,
and interviews with the stars in action and even have an opportunity
to win fabulous prizes.
Farooqui hopes to expand his ability to create ideas and implement
them in the corporate world. With many more hurdles to face he is
ready for the challenge. During 1998 he was amongst the country’s
top 10 finalists in the ABSA Bank young entrepreneurs competition.
During November ’99, Pakistan’s youth publication, The Teenager
awarded him Youth of the Millennium.
Being at the helm of affairs for the group, and its three core
divisions, online, syndication and technology, his vision already
has a strong international presence, having representatives and
Bureaus in the Sub-Continent and Canada.
For now, he hopes to focus on achieving success during the
forthcoming season, touring around the country, following Hansie’s
boys and being part of the Media fraternity. Influencing key Media,
IT, Marketing positions, all this, at the age of only 17.
Combining entrepreneurial flair, with honest hard work and sheer
determination will lead to a future with immense potential set
towards unprecedented and sustained growth
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