An interesting development of the whole privatization process has been that the teams are now more technology savvy. Its cool to have team advertisements and team logos and team sponsorships etc…, but we now even have team websites!

The teams are taking this quite seriously. The BCCI itself has jumped on the bandwagon, giving out the contract to run the official IPL website to an american content firm for a rumored $50 million! The individual teams are themselves also busy building their websites. This is a very good idea, as websites are now an integral part of the lives of the city-dwellers, the core audience of the IPL. These will become like social networks where fans can connect with their favorite players and teams. With the “web 2.0″ and “social networking” fad in full swing, it is almost inevitable that the teams have snazzy websites.

So how are the teams doing in their attempt at online web presence? The Mumbai Indians website seems like just a simple HTML page with some images. The only section “news”, also says its under construction. The Bangalore Royal Challenger’s website interestingly, has Vijay Mallya’s picture on the frontpage for some reason. Well, what can you expect from PR-hungry Mallya? But the rest of the website is pretty good, with player profiles and news. The Deccan Chargers probably have the most professional website of them all, with plenty of content and news, fixtures, a fan zone and lots of stuff to do. The Delhi Daredevils have a snazzy, audio heavy, flash website full of funky graphics. They’ve also listed their merchandize on the website for folks to buy! These guys probably have the most stuff, with a message board for fans, orkut and facebook communities, and even a live webcast! I wonder if they’ll broadcast their matches on the web!

The Kolkata KnightRiders also have a flash-heavy website, but they also have a lot of content with player profiles. But the burning-helmet style graphics heavy website is a little corny. The Rajasthan Royals have a conventional blog-style that looks like its designed by a 10th standard dropout. But its still better than the non-existant website for the Mohali team. For some reason, the Mohali team didn’t think the website was worth it.

But my personal favorite website is the Chennai SuperStars. It is done up really well with a Age-Of-Empires style graphics layout that immediately catches the eye. And they’ve got all the stuff that matters - They have a tickets section describing the stadium layout, a fan zone for fans to discuss random stuff and even a Store where you can presumably buy merchandize in the near future.

Overall, there has been a lot of progress with the websites, but there’s plenty of room for improvement. The teams have a ready-made fan base that they can use to get users online. And in today’s “web” economy, that is very valuable.