Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze user-generated comments posted on social media while live matches were being played during the Cricket World Cup 2015. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from Yahoo! Cricket (YC), a website that allows people to submit comments during live matches. The comments were qualitatively analyzed using the grounded theory approach. Findings The key finding of this paper is that people like to consume live sporting events in an online social setting rather than as isolated individuals. In addition, the use of the grounded theory approach helped uncover several new findings related to people’s use of social media during live matches. Research limitations/implications Since this paper studied the case of the Cricket World Cup 2015 and collected data from YC, caution is advocated in generalizing its findings. Originality/value Scholarly interest on the use of social media during live sporting events is growing. Building on such works, this paper highlights how user-generated comments posted during the Cricket World Cup 2015 – mostly by individuals within the Indian subcontinent – intersected with broader issues such as culture, identity, politics and religion.
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Snehasish Banerjee (2018) studied this question.
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