RCB and Fans: A love affair for the ages

What is love? 

There’s no proper explanation for that in day-to-day life. Love has different magnitudes for different relations. Family, friends, girlfriends, and idols. They come with their version of love and let’s admit it, with their baggage. By 'with baggage', I mean, limitations, which are a common feature of a human life on earth.

But what about love for something that could just be experienced, cannot be touched, and doesn’t guarantee the fact that it can add value to your commercial needs? And to add some intrigue to that statement, that love is palpable at the same time. 

The second statement is what describes the relationship between Royal Challengers Bangalore and their fans. Since 2008, RCB has offered a love potion to them, without any drug or herb. They haven’t undergone any sorcery. But the fans created a submarine called 12^th Man Army and kept detonating nuclear weapons filled with fandom at 12.9788° N, 77.5997° E in Bangalore’s red-hot cricketing hub.

In marketing, they say, don’t find customers for your product, but find products for your customers True! But what if the product and the customers are in dire need of each other? Does business remain business? or insanity gets encapsulated!

There’s always a hint of insanity in love and there has to be a reason for that insanity.

RCB's 16-year quest for an IPL trophy remains unsatiated. They gave a sure shot at it, by reaching the finals thrice: in 2009, 2011, and 2016. The giveback is never in the form of winning silverware. Yet, they are loved to the point of insanity, which they eventually never dreamt of.

They created life out of lifestyle for their supporters!

RCB were bulldozed in their debut game of the IPL 2008 by Brendon McCullum, as he scored the first ton in the history of the tournament, smashing a 73-ball 158, laced with 10 fours and 13 sixes, smashed their bowlers all around the park, resulting in a nightmarish start for the franchise. 5 seasons down the line, they reverted with Chris Gayle butchering Pune Warriors bowlers and notching up 175 in just 66 deliveries, the highest score in the IPL till now. 

Back in 2008, they invested in Virat Kohli, who was just hatching out of an eggshell at that point in time. During when the world was questioning his attitude, they babied him by retaining him time and again. He connected with the Bangalore crowd, in the way he connects a full-pitched delivery bowled outside off, dispatching the ball towards the long-off fence. 

When you believed RCB had reached the pinnacle of stardom, Mr. 360 degrees made his entrance. AB de Villiers joined RCB in 2011 and the ever-enthusiastic Bangalore crowd witnessed a B-Blade spring into action amidst a greenery-filled, painted red amphitheatre.   

The distance is hardly around 700 meters from the Tonique liquor store to the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium’s box office. When ticket sale news spreads across, 70 police personnel are specially deployed to guard the 700-meter stretch to contain the splurge of fans to get their hands on tickets. If they fail to grab some, your late-night cigarette and coffee search around the stadium might expose you to the extremism of love. People could be seen sleeping on the footpath, the temperature drops to 17 degrees, with only backpacks as pillows and popcorn bush cedar trees as a head cover.  

Every year, the Instagram fan pages and WhatsApp statuses start beckoning the new season with chants of “Ee Sala Cup Namde (this year, the cup is ours).” T-shirts are sold which are embossed with the famous lines. And when D-Day arrives, the metro train system runs out of tokens, a 1000-rupee ticket is blacked at around 5000 rupees, all the thela waala’s converge around the stadium, RCB’s unofficial jerseys sell out like peanuts, parking becomes a hassle, a sandwich with just mayonnaise and spinach costs 200 rupees, a 20-rupee water bottle costs 40 bucks, but who cares? 

“Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.” 

That’s what RCBians have been doing for 16 years, waiting for a cup.

The upcoming IPL 2024 marks the 17^th season of the league and the same number of years for the RCB franchise too. 17 years is a long association. When everyone desires just one thing and time passes like a never-ending goods train on a train platform, it does become an arduous job.

Having written this, I am sure, just when the ticket prices arrive and RCB's home fixtures have the costliest base price for a ticket in the whole of India, people will still plan a rendezvous near the box office. A techie in his office might have opened an incognito tab and started comparing, which fixture to place stakes on. The kids might be demanding a bribe for a live RCB game in return for delivering good grades from their parents. 

Expect the vibe to be the same in the stadium, the domination of red jerseys, the Mexican waves, the DJ playing background music from the movie KGF whenever Kohli steps foot on the lush-green outfield, fans converging in to evade the misfit pillars in between the viewing gallery, the chants of Ee Sala Cup Namde and last but not the least, the echo of AAAAR CEEEE BEEEE reverberating through the vast expanse of the stadium and its surroundings; for love never demands, it gives.