“I want your brain” : Complimenting behavior in online Over by Over cricket commentary

This chapter examines complimenting behavior in Over by Over cricket com- mentary (OBO), a hybrid online genre with a conspicuous level of audience participation. The genre is defined and described and its social media credentials are assessed. The resulting picture is of an asymmetrical and time-bound virtual grouping in which simulated interactions between journalists and readers are increasingly to the fore. A significant presence of compliments was noted in preliminary readings. For insights into their forms and function, a corpus of commentary on two days’ play in separate international cricket matches was analyzed for complimenting content. Contrary to findings in previous studies for other social media, al- though direct explicit compliments comprised the majority, most occurred in non-formulaic patterns. A number of explanations for this are proposed.