The Tech-20 League!

High octane cricketing action, international stalwarts rubbing shoulders with emerging local talent, cheerleader squads, colourful jerseys, crooked finger umpires, after parties… To this long list of things synonymous with the Indian Premier League, you can now add social media and technology. Here’s how:

Emoji daalo ji!

This year, microblogging enthusiasts have the option of tweeting about their favourite players along with their emojis. For instance, if you tweet about any of the top 30 cricketing stars this season, an emoji of the player will automatically crop up next to your hashtag. Twitter claims that these hashtags will count towards the daily IPL Player Twitter battle showcased during the live TV broadcast of the games. As the IPL is celebrating its 10th year, Twitter has also created exclusive emojis for the season. As the first global launch partner for the recently launched Twitter Lite, Vodafone is providing a customised timeline of top cricket-related Tweets available to the operator's smartphone customers throughout the T20 season.

Behind the scenes gossip

If you love cricket enough to learn more about cricketers’ after hours, login to Hike Messenger. In a series called Caught Behind, the messenger brings behind the scenes photos and videos. It also features stars like Chris Gayle and DJ Bravo as video jockeys, entertaining you with impromptu dance performances, rapid fire questions and dialogues in Hindi. Caught Behind is currently available on Android, and will be launched on Wednesday (April 12) for iOS users.

Flash your support

If you are a die-hard fan of T-20 cricket, you have the chance to flaunt your support by procuring a specially-created smartphone for the IPL. Vivo launches its exclusive IPL edition of its V5 Plus smartphone today (April 10), which comes in matte black colour with the 10th anniversary IPL logo engraved in the black panel. The device that has a 20 MP dual front camera features cricket-themed menu icons and wallpapers.

Video wishes

Wishfie, a social video start-up from Bangalore allows you to create short videos where you can show your support to your favourite IPL team. You can initiate a ‘wishfie’ at www.wishfie.com or download the app from Google Play Store, where your friends and fellow enthusiasts from around the world can join in. The app stiches all your videos together in real-time and takes it to your favourite team or player. Wishfie has recently compiled a 5-minute video titled ‘Get well soon, Virat’ where Virat Kohli fans from around the world have created video messages wishing the cricketer’s speedy recovery from injury.

Tech IT to win!

It’s not just you and me who can use technology to enrich our IPL experience. The teams too, are using advanced technology to improve their game plan. Global PC manufacturer Acer has become the Technology Partner for Royal Challengers Bangalore, in a quest to help the team get tech insights on how to tackle the opposition effectively.

International reach

If you have any friends in the US who are IPL fans, they can tune into Willow TV’s “TV Everywhere” service that will allow them to watch HD content of each of the 60 matches not just on cable but IPTV products and mobile phones as well. Yes the US has its own 24x7 live cricket channel!

This summer, things are definitely heating up around the 22 yards of the cricket pitch, and technology is powering it up like never before. May the best team (and technology) win!

—IndiaTechOnline