On February 15, there was a frenzy of sorts online with '#IndvsPak' being one of the top trends worldwide on Twitter. The long-standing cricket rivalry between India and Pakistan sent the microblogging site into a storm with cricket fever strongly gripping the nation.
Social media and live streaming have changed the way we look at sports, especially cricket, which is considered as a religion in India. Many former cricketers from around the world took to the social media platform with the most popular one being Sachin Tendulkar’s photograph of fans dancing to celebrate the win, which was taken from the balcony of his house.
John D’Souza, director of www.strivenetwork.com, a live event production system, feels that social commentary is the future trend of social media even though it is not structured. “Social commentary gives one an idea about how people interact on social media. It makes any sport more interesting and interactive. Earlier, it was always just the commentator talking and people listening. But now, one can get varied opinions from different people about the game and comment on how it is progressing. Everyone wants to know what sports-lovers think as supposed to what the commentator is talking,” he notes.
Television presenter Mandira Bedi, who has hosted several cricketing events, says, “The Cricket World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the country and although people love to watch it on TV, the online option has been a boon for fans. Thanks to our busy lives, it is hard to follow the matches on TV but with the internet, one can watch the match even when he or she is on the move. But of course, the pleasure of watching it on TV cannot be ruled out.”
Aneesh Madani, Head of Sports Partnerships, Twitter India, says, “Twitter is like a de facto screen for TV viewers. It not only helps everyone follow cricket but also take part in discussions. There were 118.3 million live tweets. We are humbled to see the love for cricket skyrocket among our users over and expect them to break all records during the tournament.”
Two out of three users are expected to increase their Twitter activity during the world cup and as per a recent ‘Cricket Moments’ study that Twitter had commissioned, nine out of ten users in India are fans of cricket, of which 74 per cent are under the age of 35. Twitter India says that the India-Pakistan match was a watershed moment in the history of Twitter and cricket as there were 1.7 million tweets related to the match. The India-South Africa game also saw a lot of buzz with 7,70,000 tweets during the course of the game. The official hashtag of the Cricket World Cup, #cwc15, crossed one million tweets within the first week of World Cup.
However, the comments on social media are often taken negatively. Aakanksha Srinivasan, an avid tweeter and a cricket buff, was constantly tweeting during the match and feels that with the phenomenon of trolling, some negativity is bound to be there. “But this is what makes social media interactive. Jokes should be taken in a light manner. Following cricket online exposes one to various fun facts which otherwise would not have been possible,” she says.
When asked about the number of people who have switched over to online viewing, John says there is no particular figure. “But when you are watching it online, you need to log on. This provides the
demographic details and we can find out for how long the viewer was watching a match as opposed to a broadcast where one cannot calculate the exact statistics,” he sums up.
Published 26 February 2015, 15:24 IST