The Indian Premier League (IPL) has started playing on turfs that extend beyond the cricket playground and television. Social networking and micro-blogging sites like Twitter have become the new pitch for talking about IPL III.
IPL commissioner Lalit Modi tweets not only to give updates, but also to comment on controversies. Using Twitter, Modi also recently sought bids for the two new teams that will be included in IPL IV in 2011. “The base price will be $225 million for the two new teams,” wrote Modi.
Kings XI Punjab owner Priety Zinta, too, tweets to give updates on her commitment to her team. On her social networking account Zinta recently posted, “I can only start filming any film post IPL. For now, its cricket all the way. Folks keep the faith and wait for me on the silver screen.” Shah Rukh Khan, who promoted My Name is Khan on Twitter, is expected to soon switch to talking about Knight Riders on “Knightwriters” — his page for fans on the site.
Meanwhile, all teams have Twitter accounts and some have registered on Facebook too. This is in addition to the contests and games that run on the teams’ official websites. Teams like Chennai Superkings, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Mumbai Indians are even redoing their official websites in order to make cricket more fun for the fans with the launch of several “cricketainment”-related activities.
Chennai Superkings, for instance, has tied up with Yahoo! to redo its website to make it more interactive. Rakesh Singh, marketing head of Chennai Superkings says: “Yahoo is a new tie-up and our intention is to make the website powerful so that videos can be downloaded faster without buffering. The website would also become blogger-friendly and we are also integrating Twitter and Facebook.” Last year, the Chennai Superkings website saw 70,000 unique logins during the match days.
“Monetisation can start happening only with e-commerce, which should happen sooner,” Singh adds. With theatrical rights and the Google, Youtube deal in the bag, industry estimates peg revenues for IPL III to touch Rs 700 crore — a 50 per cent jump in revenues this year from season two held in South Africa last year.
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Harish Bijoor, brand strategy specialist and chief executive officer of Harish Bijoor Consults, says that the online medium is not adequately exploited. “Fans can look at match replays as well as build something like a second life where websites create a social platform for fans to interact with the teams or even with their friends,” he adds.
Kolkata Knight Riders is also planning for “better online experience.” A spokesperson for Red Chillies, the company that owns KKR, says: “We are making our website more interactive. One of the major initiatives this year is creating an opportunity for visitors to buy merchandise and match tickets online.”The website would also come up with a KKR online fan club. KKR has over 40,000 registered users.
Likewise, Mumbai Indians, spearheaded by Sachin Tendulkar, has started sales of online tickets for the franchise’s home matches for IPL III commencing on March 12. Mumbai Indians has tied up with bookmyshow.com for online booking of tickets. Cricket fans can choose their favourite view seats at the time of booking. For the first time, every seat in the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai (except the Block 15, East Stand) has been mapped online.