MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is banking heavily on social media or Twitter to be precise to engage sports buffs as it gears up for the season 6 of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

In a first for the cricket body, the BCCI has said that Twitter features on the IPL website, such as the Tweet Counter and Team Hashtag Battle, will be integrated into the television production, with the support of a real-time data stream, and will be flashed on the TV screen during the live telecast of the IPL 2013 matches.

Viewers will be invited and encouraged to tweet and vine on the IPL 2013, and the best tweets of the day will be picked, to be read out by the commentators on air.

The variety of applications and features that this association will yield, promises to make the tournament an unprecedented interactive experience, for the fans.

?It has been our constant endeavour to make the fans feel that they are a vital part of the IPL, and not just passive spectators on the outside. Our relationship with Twitter, one of the world?s most popular and prominent social media platforms, will bring the fans closer to the IPL 2013 and the cricketers participating in it, in a thoroughly engrossing, interesting and enjoyable manner,? said IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla.

?Twitter brings you closer to the things you are passionate about - and for millions of fans worldwide, that?s cricket. We are pleased to see the IPL using Twitter to help fans users follow and connect with their favorite players, teams, and personalities," a Twitter spokesperson said.

Following are some facets of the association between the IPL 2013 and Twitter:

IPL on Twitter

Twitter Magic Mirror: For the first time, this application will be used worldwide throughout a professional sports tournament season.

The Mirror will, in select celebratory settings, allow Cricketers and Celebrities to tweet out candid pictures with one click through the @IPL account. The Mirror will travel the country, and give fans an authentic view of the IPL.

Discover Page: "IPL 2013 Discover Page" (available at discover.twitter.com/IPL) will help users around the world to easily sign up for Twitter, view/join the #PepsiIPL conversation, and follow their favourite cricketers, teams, personalities, celebrities and more, with one click.

Twitter on IPL

The Web

Twitter is extensively featured on the tournament?s official website (iplt20.com) in various forms, such as:

The Team Hashtag Battle: On the Live ?Match Centre,? there will be hashtags for both teams (eg. #KKR and #DD). As the teams fight it out in the middle, their fans will indulge in a battle of hashtags to ensure that their favourite team triumphs on the popularity front.

Live Tweet Counter: The ?Match Centre? has a counter that keeps rolling as people tweet anything related to the match, or the IPL 2013.

Top 10 Trends: There is a section on the homepage that ranks the IPL 2013 teams on the basis of how talked about they are on Twitter. It will help fans track the overall Twitter popularity of their favourite team.

The Loyalty corner: There will be a box on the homepage where the fans can announce their allegiance to a team on Twitter. All they need to do is select which team they support and hit ?TWEET?.

IPL 2013 Conversation: There will be a box on the official website?s homepage, through which the fans can let the world know why they are excited about the Pepsi IPL 2013.

IPL 2013 Tweets: There will be a section on the official website that will feature tweets from the Pepsi IPL 2013 franchises, cricketers, commentators and administrators. The section will act as a fan?s one-stop destination to know what the ?who?s who? of the Pepsi IPL 2013 are talking about.