Indians love their cricket and the day after any match involving India and any other team for that matter, there is a barrage of opinions on what went right and what went wrong. It’s always fantastic when a game invokes such a level of devotion from its fans. But in the 21st century, when we have the resources, isn’t it time we brought the people into the game in addition to having them spectate from the stadium seats and their homes? So heres the idea.

Why don’t we start a website that allows for crowdsourcing of options for team captains. For example we open the website for ideas 10 minutes before the 45th over (when the powerplay is set to begin) and people all over the world can send in their ideas on what needs to be done in order to win the game – they could send in ideas for field positions, who needs to bowl the last over amongst other things. Now I know what some of you are saying “This is a horrible idea since too many ideas are bound to come in and its not right to meddle in the way captains run their ship”. Fair enough! In order to resolve this, I propose an options clause – the captain DOES NOT HAVE TO implement the ideas but reserves the right to implement his strategy based on his discretion. Furthermore, as an incentive to those participating, the person to first submit and idea that gets implemented by the captain gets a reward – maybe some time in the locker room with the players or a free ticket to the next game.

With this idea we have the following gains:

1. People are now more involved with the game itself rather than screaming at the television sets or directly at the players beyond earshot in the field. Furthermore, there is now increased interaction between the fans themselves pitting ideas and options against each other. Remember, these are people who have spent countless hours daily playing the game so the options generated are bound to be good.
2. Players (including the captain) now have the help of their people during the match and do not have to be petrified by lack of experience or too much thereof
3. Cricket benefits from the infusion of technology and involvement of its fans and patrons

In the age of mass personalization, it is inevitable that such strategies will eventually find its way into the world of sports. While some of us are not blessed with the talent of actually playing sports, somehow we think that we are capable of making decisions that affect the outcome of the sport we love. And thus, today we give birth to backseat sporting!