T20 e-chatter has doubled this yr: Nielsen

Even before the first jiggle of a cheerleader was recorded at the IPL-3, it generated social media chatter that was twice as intense as that produced by the T20 festivities last year, according to a Nielsen Company analysis. The statistic, derived by the use of Nielsen Online BuzzMetrics, reveals two truisms: social media buzz is bustling as never before, and T20 cricket has mesmerised fans all over the world.

Nielsen studied message boards, blogs, discussion groups and micro-blogging sites such as Twitter, across all nations that follow cricket. The study showed that Kolkata Knight Riders was the most discussed team, as was the case in the last season. Ricky Ponting, despite his absence, is the player provoking the maximum buzz.

As for the teams, Kings XI Punjab has supplanted Rajasthan Royals this year as the second most discussed team in the social media. Kings XI is trailed by the Deccan Chargers. Karthik Nagarajan, the associate director of Nielsen Online, has been quoted as saying: "The overall increase in buzz volume indicates the exponential growth in social media across regions."

Nagarajan said that the Fake IPL Player (who provided anonymous but delectably juicy "insider' gossip about KKR) was in the top 5 in 2009. "That was the case even though the scope of the reports was global," Nagarajan has said. "This was in the absence of Twitter. So you can imagine how much more attention he can garner this year, with a tool like Twitter at his disposal. This also indicates how effectively a topic can be trended in the online world, within a period of 7 weeks."

Surprisingly, the cricket God, Sachin Tendulkar, was the not the top buzz generator in IPL-2, coming a distant second. But this year, he is just a hair-breadth distance from Ponting. Behind Sachin are Dhoni (the third most discussed player in 2009 and 2010); and Virender Sehwag.