Watching sports on television has always been associated with a number of personal superstitions. Sports fans sometimes engage in the most ridiculous of superstitions in order to ensure that the team they are supporting wins. From team jerseys and food to favourite couches and television sets, teams always have a number of extra players doing whatever they believe they can to ensure a good performance.
This ICC Cricket World Cup, many fans have stopped holding the remote control in their hands and have replaced it with smart phones. Evidence of this trend has been seen across social networking sites over the past two weekends; whenever India has played, the match has been trending.
Rohan Soni says, “I first started tweeting and sharing my experience during the advertisement break and got hooked on as I believed in my mind that there was a certain pattern that followed my action on social network. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s a quirk that makes watching all the more fun.”
A host of online forums and hashtags come up every match, which engage viewers to share their thoughts and funny one liners. Some are for the serious “arm-chair experts” while others are purely for fun that have people uploading comic strips and memes about the match.
Anisha Rana, who watches cricket only during big ticket events, says, “Especially during the middle overs or when not much action is going on, constantly engaging on a social platform is a fun way to predict scores and make the experience much more fun.”
Her husband Mohit is quite happy with the trend as it makes her watch the match instead of going out for a movie, which is their usual weekend ritual. He is particularly hooked to the satirical page, “Veroit Coalhi” and the “pataka advertisements” aired on television, which have been a hit on social media.
Jaideep Deo Bhanj
