Sachin, Sourav draw as much as Tharoor, Modi in IPL cyberspace

The Indian Premier League (IPL) may have been in news for all the wrong reasons, but it is the teams and people related to it that are currently ruling the roost online. The buzz has shifted to teams and players over the past one month, according to independent online surveys by Google and Nielsen.

“In the last two weeks, the focus of social media users has shifted from cricket and they have discussed Shashi Tharoor and Lalit Modi even more than the two most discussed players online, Tendulkar and Dhoni. The sentiments were negative for both Tharoor and Modi initially. However, in the last couple of days, brand Tharoor seems to have recovered marginally, while Modi continues to be perceived negatively in social media,” states an analysis by global media major The Nielsen Company.

The company used its Online BuzzMetrics, which measured online posts in message boards, blogs, discussion groups and micro blogs across all cricket-following countries for the analysis.

“Contrary to our hypothesis, it seems that on-field performance does matter when it comes to online buzz volume. Discussions revolving around Mumbai Indians, Sachin and Dhoni are a clear indication. Having said that, the controversy between Tharoor and Modi is so dominant that even players like Sachin and Dhoni have been overshadowed by it, despite their performance,” said Karthik Nagarajan, Associate Director – Nielsen Online, The Nielsen Company.

Google India’s second IPL Zeitgeist for 2010 corroborated the trend, too, and revealed that Sachin Tendulkar emerged as the most searched Indian cricketer, followed by Sourav Ganguly. M S Dhoni and Virender Sehwag moved off the top 10 this year.

The Google survey noted that among the teams, Deccan Chargers ousted the Mumbai Indians from the top slot. Chennai Super Kings rounded up the top three teams, as Kolkata Knight Riders dropped to number four this year.

‘Super Over’ emerged as the most searched IPL-related query on YouTube, followed by Chennai Super Kings. Yusuf Pathan, who did not make it to the IPL Zeitgeist on Google Search, emerged as the most searched player on YouTube.