Did not! Did too!

The Internet often serves as the battle ground for many a clash between cricket fans of different nationalities. The flame wars of the newsgroups hierarchies and the IRC channels are the stuff of legend (I did my fair share of flamethrowing back in the day before tiring of the sport and withdrawing completely). But almost any space that lets rival groups speak in the same space invites similar pyrotechnics, especially when nationalist sentiment is close to the surface. Comments threads on blogs are the most common spot now for cricket fans to lock horns. Witness the activity on major newspaper sites after the events of the new year Down Under. But another sphere of fan interaction which is considerably less policed, and hence sees way more uninhibited writing, is the YouTube comment space for cricket videos. The language on some of these threads is amazing, and leads me to wonder how quickly restraints can be loosened when anonymity seems guaranteed. It also provokes thought on the nature of the video (as opposed to text) as stimulus for the comments to be found there. Very few YouTube cricket video comment threads remain non-abusive; someone invariably feels the need to insert anatomical references; someone feels the need to reply, and we're off and running. Needless to say, India-Pakistan clashes provoke the most colorful language and the most vivid imagery. The videos themselves, of course, can often be the very contribution that a fan wants to make to a dispute. Thus we have the 'highlights' video, dedicated to incompetence in, or the particularly singular failure of, an opponent (and which needless to say either invites video responses dedicated to making a counter statement or a slew of more vituperative comment).

In any case, I plan to start writing some comments on YouTube segments that are worth a closer look, and hope I'll get some comments on them - just not the kind that I find over at YouTube itself!