BCCI has logged in to facebook to reach out to its fan base. In a country where millions of people love the game, but meeting their favourite is still a distant for them even in the era of social media.
So BCCI has decided to log in into the most popular social media site facebook to bridge a digital platform to squeeze the gap between players and fans.
The Board came up with a facebook page called the Indian Cricket team. The page provides fans the opportunity to chat with players, to watch their exclusive funny videos, images, interviews and important events.
A sizeable number of India’s youth use the internet.The team’s page become immensely popular as it has got more than 2.3 crore page likes so far.
“We have focused a lot on social media and want the team to connect with the fans. At the same time, we want to tap the young fans who are involved with the social platform 24×7. Our aim is to feel that it is their team and develop a sense of belonging,” Board secretary Anurag Thakur was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.
The paper reported that the page initially greeted fans during festivals, but its popularity rose once it started posting pictures and messages of players. In last five months only, the page got a whooping 60 lakh likes.
Board secreraty Thakur said a lot of hard work went into making the page a success, “We brought players on the platform and began posting interviews where players were not only discussing cricket but also sharing off-field life. Once a week we decided to bring the player live on the profile and fans can chat by sending their questions.
Earlier, Ravi Shastri, Rahuil Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane were a huge success. On an average, every interview had close to eight-nine lakh views,” Thakur said.
Page’s last post was on Thursday about that on the same date in 1933 at Bombay Gymkhana, Lala Amarnath had become India’s first Test centurion in a Test against England. Although the post was about an old cricketer, within a day of the post, it got more than 14,000 likes and was shared more than 350 times.
There is no doubt that BCCI opted for right medium to the bridge of miles of the gap between players and fans.