Cricket is a time-consuming game and with the 2011 World Cup set to run over six weeks, many are looking for ways to stay connected without being distracted. Twitter updates may provide an ideal way to do that but it is not without its pitfalls.
Twitter and the World Cup seemed to get off on the wrong foot when the International Cricket Council (ICC) banned players and team management from tweeting on match days over concerns about corruption.
The ICC ban may mean that players and team managers can’t comment on their own matches on the days they’re playing but that shouldn’t stand in the way of insightful commentary on the performance of other teams. One would think that sportsmen would have something to say about the performance of their personal favourite teams or players, or even about their perceived chief opposition but there’s been little of this in the tournament so far.
A number of cricketers are tweeting from the Indian subcontinent but this hasn’t really translated into useful twitter updates. Players like Graeme Smith (@GraemeSmith49), AB De Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) and JP Duminy (@jpduminy21) tweet as though they’re responding to a post-match interview. Their tweets are generally bland, obvious and suspiciously sanitized. There have been tweets about entering a new city or having a good training session and about birthday cakes and shopping trips — none of which would stimulate debate through the medium.
Clearly the Twitterati need to be looking elsewhere for cricket insight.
Social media consultant Melissa Attree says that as with most sporting events, people who are interested want ball-by-ball updates as the match happens. “Most people can’t sit around and watch the game ball by ball so they look for credible tweeters who share scores and highlights as the game unfolds,” she says.
Cricketers themselves will not necessarily provide this kind of information. Attree says that the Proteas tweets, for example, can be a bit “controlled”, so for fans peer-to-peer information may be more accessible.
“Often the most interesting sports tweets come from people who are just great cricket fans, who are used to the Twitter medium and who are good communicators,” she said. “The best cricket tweets have humour, perspective and facts as well.”
Attree recommended The Bounce (@followthebounce) and SA Cricket Blog (@sacricketblog) as worthwhile fan twitter sites and the local twitterverse concurred. Others recommended Simon Williamson (@simonwillo) and Ant Sims (@mspr1nt).
Services like ESPN Cricinfo (@espncricinfo) have won a following not just from the average cricket fan but also from many cricketers. The feed provides live scoring, statistics, and tabs on matches as well as links to longer cricket blogs and articles.
Mike Stopforth, CEO of social media company Cerebra, says following cricket commentators can be one way to get discerning updates on the World Cup. “What they don’t get to say onscreen you can get on their twitter feeds,” says Stopforth.
Commentator and former cricketer Mike Haysman (@HazeCricket) doesn’t hold back with his tweets. A week into the World Cup he tweeted: “Finally 2 games in a row worth watching! This WC seriously needs a fast forward button. Shud have been 2 games each day for 10 days!”
Stopforth says following sports journalists who are at the World Cup, like the Star‘s Kevin McCallum (@KevinMcCallum), also provides fascinating, behind the scenes insights from India or Bengaluru that one wouldn’t be able to get otherwise. McCallum tweets cricket news, documents the Proteas match preparations and throws in a few travel-documentary style pictures of billboards and stadiums.
With an entire month left before the tournament ends, it’s not too late to capitalise on Twitter’s information gathering potential. “Use lists, track hashtags for relevant matches and make sure you’re following the right people,” suggests Stopforth. Some popular hashtags for the World Cup include #cwc and #cwc2011.
But Attree warned tweeters to opt for moderation — following too many cricket-themed tweeters could flood your Twitter-stream and block out other interests.