2014: A look back of Sports In #YearOnTwitter

twitter12014 has been an exciting year for Indian Sports fan on Twitter. Federations, Leagues and Teams across different genres: cricket, Tennis, Football and Kabaddi have used the platform to connect with fans. As the world’s largest platform for live, public conversations, Twitter was where

Indians expressed, consumed and connected with their fellow compatriots over global and Indian Sporting events in real-time. This is demonstrated by conversations around the 2014 FIFA #WorldCup which lead the trends among the fastest rising Twitter hashtag trends in India.

Top peaks in conversation relating to sports

Rohit Sharma (@ImRo45) smashed the world record for the highest individual ODI cricket score of 264 on November 13th versus Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. That incredible batting display drove the biggest spike in conversations on Twitter in India this year. In fact, of the Top 10 moments, three are related to cricket including the Indian Premier League.  

 

The roar of the cricket fans, indeed, was heard on Twitter this year in India.

RANK DATE MOMENT
13 Nov 2014 Rohit Sharma scores 264 runs vs Sri Lanka. He claimed the record for the world’s highest ever ODI score by an individual
2 May 2014 The 2014 season of the Pepsi IPL returns to India
2 July 2014 Outrage over tennis star Maria Sharapova claiming she does not know who is cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar

 

Top Sports trends

 

Cricket was hands down the crowd pleaser in terms of trends in sport. The India-England series was the top trend in the world of cricket, while the Pepsi IPL came in second. In fact, four of the top 10 trends in cricket, refer to the Pepsi IPL. The one-off game of cricket featuring legends at Lord’s Cricket Ground, MCC vs Rest of the World came in fifth.

Football and Tennis continued to dominate the other sports category in India. Following global trends, the FIFA World Cup 2014 was the top trend in the segment, followed closely by the legion of Manchester United fans. Half of the top ten is dominated by the World Cup, while Tennis took up two spots of honour.

Cricket

 

RANK HASHTAG DESCRIPTION
#IndvsEng #IndvsEng refers to India vs England cricket match played
#IPL7 #IPL 7 refers to the “ Indian Premier League” 7th season
#NZvsInd #NZvsInd refers to New Zealand vs India cricket match played
#wt20 World Twenty20 are the world finals in the Twenty20 cricket format
#MCCvsROW Marylebone Cricket Club beat Rest of the World XI cricket match
#IPLAuction Information and conversations around the  IPL players auction
#MIVsRR Mumbai Indians Vs Rajasthan Royals game in the IPL
#CLT20 #CLT20 refers to Champions League T20
#IndVSL #IndVSL refers to India vs Sri Lanka cricket series
#RCBVKKR Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kolkata Knight Riders game in the IPL

 

Other Sports

RANK HASHTAG DESCRIPTION
#WorldCup2014 Conversation around Football World Cup 2014 held in Brazil
#MUFC Football fans following  Manchester United Football Club
#AusOpen Conversations around 2014 Australian Open
#BRAvsCOL Brazil Vs Colombia World Cup Football game
#Wimbledon2014 Conversations around 2014 Wimbledon
#UCL Happenings around the Champions League football played by top European Clubs
#BRAvsCHI Brazil vs Chile World Cup Football game
#WorldCupFinal Conversations around the 2014 World Cup football final
#CFC Football fans following Chelsea Football Club
#spainvsnetherlands Spain vs Netherlands World Cup Football game

 

Top most followed Indian Sports personality

The Cricketing God Sachin Tendulkar is Numero Uno in the list of most followed sports personalities in India and Virat Kohli is fast catching up to him. Such is the dominance of Cricket that 9 out of top 10 list of most followed sports personalities are cricketers with Sania Mirza being the only exception at #7 on the list.

RANK NAME TWITTER HANDLE FOLLOWERS
1 Sachin Tendulkar @sachin_rt 4,797,453
2 Virat Kohli @imvkohli 4,624,003
3 MS Dhoni @msdhoni 3,264,924
4 Virender Sehwag @virendersehwag 3,112,141
5 Yuvraj Singh @yuvstrong12 2,669,268
6 Suresh Raina @imraina 2,522,705
7 Sania Mirza @mirzasania 2,156,741
8 Zaheer Khan @imzaheer 1,694,894
9 Gautam Gambhir @gautamgambhir 1,624,827
10 Rohit Sharma @imro45 1,522,241

 

Top moments for sporting VITs

 

Cricketing personalities are the most celebrated in India. Therefore, the most mentioned sporting events are predictably related to Cricket. Given below is the list for 2014

RANK Date TWITTER HANDLE NAME Moment
24 April 2014 @sachin_rt Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Tendulkar’s Birthday
7 July 2014 @msdhoni Mahendra Singh Dhoni MS Dhoni’s Birthday
30 May 2014 @virendersehwag Virendra Sehwag Virender Sehwag scored 122 Of 58 balls Vs Chennai Super Kings in the IPL
6 April 2014 @yuvstrong12 Yuvraj Singh Yuvraj Singh’s knock of 11 runs from 21 balls in the WorldT20, 2014 finals against Sri Lanka

 

Most Retweeted tweet by a sports personality is by Sachin Tendulkar paying tribute to Phillip Hughes

https://twitter.com/sachin_rt/status/538299716203601920

 

VITs who joined Twitter in 2014

 

Some offamous sports personalities who joined Twitter this year were VVS Laxman and Anil Kumble.

 

NAME TWITTER HANDLE FIELD OF WORK FOLLOWERS AS ON 09.12
VVS Laxman @VVSLaxman281 Cricket 1,22,348
Anil Kumble @anilkumble1074 Cricket 56,806