RCB fans abuse me, my family: Dinesh Karthik exposes loyal supporters' 'bad way'

Dinesh Karthik has revealed how loyal Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) fans can go to extreme levels of supporting their players and also “abuse” them and their families when they fail in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

In an interview with India and Rajasthan Royals (RR) off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube channel, Karthik exposed the hypocrisy of RCB’s fan base.

Fans backing RCB players

The veteran wicketkeeper-batter who has played for various IPL franchises and is currently with the RCB in the ongoing IPL 2024, said RCB fans as loyalists and hailed them as “incredible”.

“RCB fans are loyalists. They are actually family, and I say that in good and bad ways. The good way is that when you go, no matter what happens, if I walk in, they will cheer my name and make me feel like I’m the greatest player on Earth… What I mean by that is that to the outside world, they will never give up on you. If there is a fight between say you know some team and they say, “Oh, Dinesh is not a good player,” they will pounce on that person and smash him, saying this is the record this is what he’s done, that is what he’s done,” Karthik said.

Abusing in DMs

The “bad way” of an RCB fan was explained by Karthik this way, “But, on a personal level, that same fan will abuse me silently in DMs (Direct Messages on social media) every day, rather than on a one-on-one note. He will go hard at me if I don’t do well for RCB; he will smash me, not just me, my family, and whoever is possible in my life. But to the outside world, They will not give up an RCB player.”

“For them, it is very special, and what a fan base they have for a team that has been competing for 16 years. Unreal fan base that they have, as I said. I have been part of many teams. You know all of them have fans, but RCB is incredible,” he added.

The Kohli effect on RCB

Karthik, who is likely to retire from cricket after the IPL 2024, said the massive fan base of RCB was due to Virat Kohli’s presence.

“A lot of it is fuelled by the fandom that Virat has, let us be honest. I think they love the person and he has been the most loyal and faithful player to RCB, but also credit to RCB for building a franchise that is slowly and steadily becoming popular worldwide,” he said.

RCB, ahead of this season, changed their name from Royal Challengers Bangalore to Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Kohli has been playing for RCB since the first season. However, fans and players are still waiting for RCB to win their maiden IPL trophy.

In IPL 2024, so far, RCB have lost four out of their five matches, and are at the ninth position in the 10-team table.