Being a Cricket Fan I love watching the Game on TV as much as I love playing this beautiful Game. Still remember getting score updates about India Matches during my school days from shopkeepers who used to listen to transistors. During college, there were so many holidays taken just to watch India matches on TV because there were neither mobiles nor laptops for Live Streaming. However, things have changed a lot after a decade or so. Sharing my experience of watching the recently concluded ICC T20 World Cup toggling between my Mobile & Laptop Screen and sometimes watching it on TV.
Due to workload, I don’t get much time to watch Cricket on TV apart from India Games in the late evenings or during weekends. Also, too much cricket & so many bilateral series has made a game bit boring & repetitive. Add to that a 2 Months IPL Tournament. However, still, one major Tournament which catches the attention of many cricket fans like me is the World Cup.
It is the only Tournament where I try to catch Live matches as & when I get time. World Cup is something different. All Teams playing together, class of cricket & the importance of winning the world cup. And for country like India, the importance is even more because we haven’t won a World Cup since our 2011 triumph.
T20 WC in Australia ended a day before yesterday & as always India failed to lift the Cup and our campaign ended in Semis. As World Cup was in Australia time slot was 9:30 AM to 5:30 AM which is a perfect time slot for work for an average Indian.
However, if you have your own business you can have some liberties like going late to the office, coming early during India Matches on weekdays & so on. However, I was at work on weekdays so I had a couple of options to catch the World Cup.
The first & most trusted option is Cricbuzz App. Due to a proper internet connection on your Mobile no matter where you are you can follow the Game on Cricbuzz App. There is a Commentary in the form of Text for every ball & the score is updated per ball & so many experts and cricket fans share their opinion between overs. So if you are traveling on a Local Train where the network fluctuates a bit or busy with work you can resort to this option of the Cricbuzz App. There are many Cricket Apps available but I use this App.
Another Option is Live Streaming the match on your mobile & Laptop. For me, during the recently concluded T20 World Cup, the rule was like this. If there is some urgent & deep work I would put on the Match on mobile & would catch Live action during the work breaks. Even in other cases during the office, most of the time match was streamed live on Mobile & if the match gets close I would switch to a Laptop for a big screen experience.
However, when India used to play I would stream the match only on my Laptop. Also, during semis most of the time I used Laptop for live streaming of matches.
Also, I have created a WhatsApp Group called Diehard Cricket Fans which consists of people who have a serious interest in the game along with sound knowledge of the game. Chats during the match are simply awesome & add to the occasion, especially during the India Games. Also, if you ask for a score update, during the India Game some members of the Group will do the needful as well.
One good thing ICC did during this T20 WC was that a lot of India matches were on Sunday so Cricket Fans got a chance to see them Live on their TV screens with their family & friends.
T20 WC got over with England winning the prestigious trophy. So toggling between Mobile & Laptop Screens and exchanging WhatsApp messages in our Cricket Group has reduced to an extent.
Digitalization has been helpful for a Cricket Addict like me as now I can follow & catch the action live even if I am working or Traveling. Also, with Social Media, you can earn money working for a Cricket Website, doing Freelancing for the official Social Media handles (pages) of a Cricket Team or a Franchise. You can also undertake a Digital Marketing campaign for a Cricketer. Also, Developing your personal brand on Twitter with a focus on Cricket also helps.
From taking a day off with a reason of stomach upset to watch India’s ODI game Live on TV to watching the entire T20 Game of Team India Live on your Laptop in your office, Digitalization has come a long way for sure. The digital world has added a bit extra to the beautiful game of Cricket.
The upcoming IND vs NZ Series will be streamed online on Amazon with DD Sports as the Telecast partner on TV. So Digitalization is having its say for sure.
You can also share your experience regarding the same in the comments section.