内容来源：https://news.microsoft.com/source/asia/features/cricket-australia-uses-ai-insights-to-bring-fans-closer-to-the-action/

内容总结：

板球赛事直播引入AI解说，历史数据实时化为观赛新体验

在今年一月举行的第五场灰烬杯板球决赛决胜日中，英格兰与澳大利亚的激烈对决牵动着全球球迷的心。当澳大利亚队有望在主场实现四连冠时，左撇子击球手特拉维斯·黑德成为关键人物。此时，通过“澳大利亚板球直播”应用程序新上线的“AI洞察”功能，球迷不仅能即时了解他的得分，更能实时获取其职业生涯数据对比：例如，他本场172分的成绩位列个人测试赛第五高，仅低于对阵斯里兰卡、西印度群岛等队伍的几次表现。这一由AI驱动的深度解读，正悄然改变着球迷的观赛方式。

该功能由澳大利亚板球协会与微软合作开发，依托微软云平台及OpenAI技术，能够实时分析比赛数据，并结合自1886年以来的庞大历史档案库，在关键时刻为球迷提供背景解读与故事化叙述。协会首席技术与数字官巴拉穆鲁甘表示：“比分和集锦告诉你‘发生了什么’，而背景信息则告诉你‘为何值得关注’。我们正试图将记分牌转化为故事。”

对于资深球迷而言，数据的准确性至关重要。协会耗时三个月对历史记分卡进行整合校验，以确保信息可靠。微软Azure云服务则为实时数据处理提供了高速、可扩展的支持，确保在赛事高峰期间数百万用户同时访问时，体验依然流畅。

澳大利亚板球协会首席执行官托德·格林伯格指出，此举旨在服务不同层次的球迷。无论是新手还是历史爱好者，都能通过选择“新手”、“历史迷”或“数据专家”等模式，获得个性化的比赛解读。墨尔本塞登板球俱乐部的球迷卡西·格雷表示：“这让我不仅能跟上比赛，还能更深入了解球员和比赛历史，理解当下的瞬间是如何形成的。”

初步的成功已吸引其他体育组织关注。格林伯格强调，协会的长期目标是通过技术创新，培养新一代板球爱好者，让这项运动陪伴球迷从8岁到80岁。从呈现比分到讲述故事，澳大利亚板球协会正借助AI技术，为这项古老运动注入新的观赛活力。

中文翻译：

一月，在始终扣人心弦的板球灰烬杯系列赛第五场决胜局的第五日，英格兰与澳大利亚正面交锋。悉尼板球场内及全球各地的球迷，无不因每一次投球与清脆的击球声而屏息凝神。

当澳大利亚力图在主场将连胜纪录延续至连续四次灰烬杯胜利时，左撇子击球手特拉维斯·黑德显然正以不断累积的得分引领澳大利亚队前进。但他的表现究竟有多出色？使用澳大利亚板球协会官方直播应用的球迷立刻得到了答案。

得益于该应用全新推出的“AI洞察”功能——该功能借助微软Foundry平台中的OpenAI GPT-5技术，实时提供球员里程碑、纪录及关键时刻的深度解读——无论是资深板球迷还是新手，现在都能获取至关重要的背景信息，从而更深入地融入比赛。他们还可以就提供的洞察内容提出后续问题，进行更深入的探索。这对于澳大利亚板球协会——该国板球运动的最高管理机构——而言，是一项令人振奋的进展。

“在最近英格兰队访澳的系列赛中，有几个关键时刻，我亲眼见证了这些洞察如何实时呈现，”澳大利亚板球协会首席执行官托德·格林伯格表示，“通过数据分析和追踪，你可以看到用户参与度的变化：当信息在恰当的时间、以恰当的格式、传递给恰当的受众时，其影响力是巨大的。”

确实，“AI洞察”显示，黑德在本场比赛中获得的172分，是其测试赛生涯个人总得分的第五高。他仅有的更高得分纪录分别是：对阵斯里兰卡220分，对阵西印度群岛213分，对阵印度181分，以及对阵英格兰180分。黑德的出色表现使他荣膺本场最佳球员，并帮助澳大利亚队以五门优势赢得比赛，最终以4-1的总比分击败老对手，赢得灰烬杯系列赛。

超越数据统计

“比分和精彩集锦告诉你发生了什么。但背景信息告诉你为何值得关注，”澳大利亚板球协会首席技术与数字官巴拉穆鲁甘·P·M指出。

“这归根结底是关于故事的讲述。在我看来，让球迷了解更多比赛背后的故事，而不仅仅是关注比分或观看集锦，至关重要。因此，我们希望提供一种不同的体验。”

随着“AI洞察”功能的聚焦，澳大利亚板球协会掌握了一项重要资源——一套可追溯至1886年的庞大官方记分卡档案库，提供了丰富的历史数据，能够连接过去与现在。这些记分卡经过为期三个月的精心整合，以确保信息能够经受住资深板球专家的检验。

“我们拥有数百年的数据，而对于球迷而言，信任是不可妥协的，”巴拉穆鲁甘说，“在处理纪录和里程碑时，不容有失。有些铁杆球迷对这些数据了如指掌。历史是板球身份的核心。而即时背景信息能将记分牌转化为故事。”

“处理如此海量的数据，进行整合，并为实时比赛呈现更丰富的背景信息，需要巨大的数据对齐和验证工作。凭借我们的系统以及我们拥有的专业团队，这得以实现。”

打造球迷可实时使用的解决方案

澳大利亚板球协会与微软合作，并联合技术合作伙伴Insight Enterprises、HCL Tech和Skewer，共同开发了这款应用的新版本。随着重要的灰烬杯和T20国际赛事临近，在这些关键比赛开始前推出应用至关重要。

该应用以微软Azure为基石，这是澳大利亚板球协会用于运行和扩展其数字平台及应用体验的云基础架构。“AI洞察”功能利用了微软Foundry中的Azure OpenAI服务，生成实时、与比赛同步的深度解读，作为球迷观赛的伴侣。

“我们所谈论的，是一个以深厚技术能力和共同交付愿景解决面向球迷问题的绝佳范例，”格林伯格表示，“微软带来了世界级的云和AI基础。没有他们，我们无法取得如今的进展。而我们的合作伙伴则帮助加速了构建、集成，特别是运营准备过程。”

“AI洞察”面临的最大挑战之一，是确保观看比赛并使用应用的球迷能在比赛进程中获取更新和背景信息，使其成为现场观赛或伴随解说观看比赛的球迷的额外资源。

Azure Cosmos DB支持着澳大利亚板球协会的应用生态系统——包括具备“AI洞察”功能的澳大利亚板球协会直播应用以及PlayCricket平台，后者每周末承载多达7,000场社区比赛的比分。该技术提供了一个快速、可扩展的数据层，能在直播比赛中快速更新，始终让球迷掌握最新比分。

“所有现场体育赛事都有一个共同点：没有暂停，”格林伯格说，“它不像真人秀电视节目。因此，体验必须快速、可靠且一致，尤其是在需求高峰期，当数百万人同时享受赛事时。”

为各类球迷量身定制的体验

尽管板球拥有其热情的支持者，尤其在澳大利亚，但对于新手而言，入门可能颇具挑战。随着澳大利亚板球协会致力于培养下一代球迷，格林伯格意识到，这款应用可以帮助这项运动的新手避免陷入困境。

“我的意思是，我们从事的是一项疯狂的、持续五天的运动，有时在五天后仍然没有结果，”格林伯格说，“我们不能期望人们每时每刻都关注比赛，但我们能做的是，根据他们希望在比赛期间参与这项运动的方式，实现高度个性化。”

墨尔本的塞登板球俱乐部自20世纪20年代成立至今，现拥有多支成年、青少年及全能力级别的队伍，在澳大利亚各地的协会中参赛。它也拥有一个忠实的支持者群体，其中包含热爱各种形式板球运动的球迷。对他们而言，板球直播应用中的“AI洞察”功能，随着他们对比赛理解的深入，已成为一项增值服务。

“它无疑让追随比赛和了解更多球员信息变得更有趣，”塞登俱乐部支持者兼板球迷卡西·格雷说，“你可以关注一名球员，了解他们以什么闻名，也能弄清楚他们的下一步是什么，或者他们需要什么才能创造下一个精彩时刻。”

“板球是一项充满历史的运动。它存在了很长时间，球员之间相互影响，国家之间也相互影响。这些洞察让我不仅了解今天发生了什么，也理解比赛中是什么导致了这些发生。”

“AI洞察”的下一步，是在其信息层级中为不同类型的球迷创造更强的个性化体验。用户可以选择“新手”、“历史爱好者”或“数据专家”等身份，接收量身定制的洞察内容。

“我们希望了解每一位球迷，并迎合他们希望通过应用获取服务的方式，”巴拉穆鲁甘说，“我们已经从比分走向了故事讲述，但我们希望从故事讲述走向由球迷自己设定叙事。球迷应该以他们希望的方式听到故事。这是我们的指导原则之一。”

随着“AI洞察”功能的初步成功，格林伯格表示，其他体育组织已开始联系，希望了解更多关于其开发过程及其对球迷群体影响的细节。澳大利亚板球协会的大多数员工都深爱这项运动，许多人自己也曾参与多年。格林伯格希望，该应用的成功及进一步的创新能够延续这项运动的发展势头。

“我们很久以后才会知道的是，我们对于让孩子们爱上并选择板球作为他们首选运动所产生的影响，”他说，“如果我们帮助他们爱上这项运动，那么，对于像板球这样的运动而言，我们能为一位年龄在8岁到80岁之间的球迷在其旅程中创造的价值是巨大的。因此，我们非常注重确保孩子们有机会参与板球运动，从而建立终身的伙伴关系。”

题图说明： 墨尔本塞登板球俱乐部的支持者热爱各种形式的板球运动，而具备“AI洞察”功能的板球直播应用，无论他们是新手球迷还是数据专家，都能让他们获得对这项运动更深入的见解。照片由Graham Denholm为微软拍摄。

作者简介： 埃利奥特·史密斯为微软撰写关于人工智能与创新的文章，内容涵盖从英超联赛如何转变其在线形象，到人工智能为何可能在拯救亚马逊雨林中发挥重要作用等话题。此前，史密斯曾在华盛顿特区、华盛顿州和德克萨斯州担任体育记者，报道范围从高中体育到职业赛事。您可以通过LinkedIn与他联系。

英文来源：

When England and Australia faced off on Day 5 of the fifth Test of the always tense Ashes cricket series in January, every ball bowled and solid crack had fans on the edge of their seats both at the Sydney Cricket Ground and around the globe.
As Australia looked to extend its winning streak to four straight Ashes on home soil, it was clear that left-handed batter Travis Head was leading the way for Australia as the runs piled up. But just how good was his performance? Fans using the Cricket Australia Live app had an instant answer.
Thanks to the app’s new AI Insights feature, which provides live insights on player milestones, records and key moments using OpenAI’s GPT-5 within Microsoft Foundry, cricket aficionados and newcomers can now access much-needed context to better engage with the game. They can also dig deeper by asking follow-up questions about the insights provided. It’s an exciting development for Cricket Australia, the governing body of the sport in the country.
“The recent series where England were here in Australia had a couple of key moments where I saw the insights come to life in real-time,” says Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg. “And you can see the engagement through the analytics and the tracking that when something is delivered in the right time frame, in the right format, into the right hands, it has a huge effect.”
Indeed, AI Insights showed that Head’s 172 runs for the match were his fifth-highest aggregate total in a test. His only higher efforts were 220 runs against Sri Lanka, 213 against West Indies, 181 against India and 180 against England. Head’s big day earned him Player of the Match honors and helped Australia claim a five-wicket victory in the match and a 4-1 Ashes series victory against its archrivals.
Going beyond the box score
“Scores and highlights tell you what happened. But the context tells you why you should care about it,” says Balamurugan P M, chief technology and digital officer at Cricket Australia.
“It comes down to the storytelling. From my perspective, I thought it was essential for fans to learn more about the story rather than just following the scores or watching highlights. So, we wanted to give a different experience.”
Cricket Australia had a corker in its arsenal as AI Insights came into focus – an extensive archive of official scorecards that dates to 1886, providing a wealth of historical data that could bridge the gap between the past and present. Those scorecards were carefully integrated over a period of three months to ensure the information would pass muster among the serious cricket experts.
“We had hundreds of years of data, and when it comes to fans, trust is non-negotiable,” Balamurugan says. “When you’re dealing with records and milestones, you can’t make mistakes. There are some hardcore fans who know these stats like the back of their hand. History is core to cricket’s identity. And instant context turns a scoreboard into a story.
“Getting that volume of data, integrating it and surfacing greater context for live games required huge data alignment and validation. With our systems and with the skilled team that we’ve got, that was made possible.”
Creating a solution fans can use in real time
Cricket Australia joined forces with Microsoft, alongside technical partners Insight Enterprises, HCL Tech and Skewer, to create the new iteration of the app. With the important Ashes and T20 international tournaments on the horizon, time was of the essence to launch the app before the bats were raised on those key fixtures.
The app is anchored by Microsoft Azure, the cloud foundation that Cricket Australia uses to run and scale its digital platforms and the app experience. AI Insights takes advantage of Azure OpenAI Service in Microsoft Foundry, which generates the real-time, match-aware insights that serve as a companion to what fans are seeing on the field.
“What we’re talking about is a really good example of solving a fan-facing problem with deep technical capability and a shared vision on delivery,” Greenberg says. “Microsoft brought world-class cloud and AI foundations. Without them, we would not have been able to get as far as we have. And our partners have helped accelerate the build, the integration and, importantly, operational readiness.”
One of the biggest challenges with AI Insights is ensuring that fans watching a match and using the app can get updates and context within the flow of the game, making it an additional resource for fans at the grounds or watching alongside with commentary.
Azure Cosmos DB supports Cricket Australia’s ecosystem of apps – including Cricket Australia Live with AI Insights and PlayCricket, which hosts scores for up to 7,000 community matches a weekend. The technology provides a fast, scalable data layer that can update quickly during live play, always keeping fans aware of the latest scores.
“All live sport has one thing in common. There are no pauses,” Greenberg says. “It’s not like reality television. So, the experience has to be fast, reliable and consistent, especially when it’s under peak demand and when you have millions of people enjoying it at the same time.”
An experience for every type of fan
While cricket has its ardent supporters, especially in Australia, it can also be difficult for newcomers to pick up. As Cricket Australia looks to cultivate the next generation of fans, Greenberg realizes that the app can prevent sticky wickets for the sport’s novices.
“I mean, we play a crazy sport that goes over five days and sometimes at the end of the five days, you still don’t get a result,” Greenberg says. “We can’t expect people to be tuned in at every moment, but what we can do is we can hyper-personalize the way they would like to engage with the sport during the contest.”
The Seddon Cricket Club in Melbourne has been in existence since the 1920s and is now home to several senior, junior and all abilities sides that compete in associations across Australia. It is also home to a loyal supporters group, featuring fans who love the game in all forms. For them, the AI Insights on the Cricket Live App has been a value add as they go deeper into the game.
“It’s definitely made it more interesting to follow along and learn more about the players,” says Cassie Gray, a Seddon Club supporter and cricket fan. “You could follow a player, you could see what they’re known for, as well as figure out what’s their next step or what do they need to get an amazing moment next.
“Cricket is a game of history. It’s been around for a really long time, and the players influence other players, and countries influence other countries. With the insights, it gives me an understanding of not just what’s happening today, but what’s led up to that in the game itself.”
The next step for AI insights is to create greater personalization within its levels of information for different types of fans. A user can select “newcomer,” “history buff” or “stats guru” and receive insights tailored to their persona.
“We want to understand every fan and cater to how they want to be served by the app,” Balamurugan says. “We have moved from scores to storytelling, but we want to move from storytelling to fans setting up the narrative themselves. Fans should hear the story how they want to hear it. That is one of our lodestars.”
With the initial success of the AI Insights feature, Greenberg said other sports organizations have reached out to learn more about how it was developed and the impact on the fanbase. Most people working at Cricket Australia have a deep love of the sport, often having played for many years. Greenberg hopes the app’s success and further innovation can continue the sport’s momentum.
“The thing we’ll never know until much later on is the impact that we’re having on young kids falling in love and choosing cricket as their preferred sport,” he says. “And if we help them love it, what we can create for a fan on their journey between the ages of 8 and 80 is astronomical for a sport like cricket. And so, we’re very mindful of ensuring kids get the opportunity to engage in cricket so we can form lifelong partnerships.”
Top Image caption: Supporters at the Seddon Cricket Club in Melbourne love the game in all forms, and the Cricket Live App featuring AI Insights has allowed them to gain further insights into the sport, whether they are a novice fan or stats guru. Photo by Graham Denholm for Microsoft.
Elliott Smith writes about AI and innovation at Microsoft, from how the Premier League is transforming its online presence to why AI may play a major role in saving the Amazon rainforest. Previously, Smith worked as a sports reporter in Washington, D.C., Washington state and Texas, covering high schools to the pros. You can contact him on LinkedIn.