Cricket Commentators - Will online-instant feedback add value?

Commentating in cricket has evolved into being a class apart, especially with the advent of Star sports, ESPN, Ten Sports and many other sports channels. The commentators team in every sports channel covering cricket, are veteran players or people who are very analytical about the game, from a neutral standpoint. It has always been a joy to watch a cricket game with these commentators.

With the internet world and social networking at its prime, there are a lot of things that these commentators and sports channel do. Some of them are as follows:

• SMS contest to vote for highest run scorer, highest wicket taker, the winning team etc.
• Email invites to give your comments, thoughts and questions to the commentators panel which is usually taken as a discussion item during breaks or post match.
• Email invites to play the captain with their strategies and the winner with the best entry is interviewed on TV either before the next day’s play or before the start/end of the match.

But there is nothing that gives the viewer an instant opportunity to interact, or at least convey something to the commentators when the matching is going on. The first question that comes to mind is whether such an opportunity is necessary. Well, one might contend that the commentators might have a tough time following the instant feedback or comments that come from viewers. Another contention might be that, the commentators know more than what the viewers might know about cricket and the match.

But we are all humans, and any amount of additional information will be helpful. Ok, if the sports channel were to implement this, they could do this in many ways. Here are some of my thoughts.

1. There are usually two commentators at any point taking turns to do the talking. The others in the team can help in filtering the incoming inputs/thoughts.

2. This could in turn be highlighted to the pair currently commentating.

3. If the incoming comments can be used later, then the filtering team could compile then in a means comfortable to them.

4. There could be a tele-prompter or a computer with the incoming feeds filtered and displayed to them.

May be one of the sports channel can try this out and see how it pans out.

What do you think? What if you are watching a match (yeah, one of those days when you really get to watch) and during the match you come across a situation when you want to take the place of the commentator and speak out?