The cricket extravaganza of IPL has begun playing out on a bigger turf that extend now well beyond the stadiums as well as print and television media.

The new media has become the pitch for talking about the league. For instance, when it comes to spreading a buzz about the third edition of IPL, in forefront are micro-blogging sites like Twitter and social networking. Lalit Modi, the maverick IPL commissioner, tweets not only to comment on various controversies, but also to provide updates. He also sought bids for the new teams to be included in IPL in 2011 by using Twitter.

The bubbly Bollywood actress Priety Zinta, also the owner of Kings XI Punjab, regularly tweets to offer updates on her staunch commitment and plans for her team. She recently noted on her popular social networking account: “I can only start filming any film post IPL. For now, its cricket all the way! Folks keep the faith and wait for me on the silver screen.”

Bollwood star Shah Rukh Khan, will be talking about his team Knight Riders on the keenly awaited ‘Knightwriters’, his special Web page for staunch fans on the site. In fact, all IPL teams now have Twitter accounts. Some also have registered on Facebook in addition to the games and contests run on their official sites.

Teams like Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Superkings are redoing their sites in order to make them livelier. For instance, Chennai Superkings has entered into a tie-up with Yahoo! to make its website more interactive. Yahoo tie-up is intended at making the site more powerful so that users can download cricket action videos faster sans buffering. The site would also be made more blogger-friendly and will integrate Twitter and Facebook.