Royal Challengers Bangalore: "City-less" mercenaries have it all to play for

RCB may not get the same enthusiastic support from Bangalore this season

If you have felt like there is great anticipation of the season to come for the Royal Challengers, you might not be from Bangalore.

When Vijay Mallya’s first RCB outfit took the field in 2008 and capitulated dramatically, the home crowd resembled a spelling bee audience.  The occasional show of appreciation, a morose buzz till the next one and general obedience when someone compulsorily announced that they aren’t allowed to get any louder. A more suitable analogy might have been a concentration camp but that wouldn’t do justice to the fact that the supporters kept coming back loss after loss, week after week, mismatch after mismatch.

It signified a sort of hidden romance amidst the corporate jungle that the IPL was shaping to become. And few things are as beautiful as the romance between a supporter and his team. A team’s success is never fully a reflection of the support it receives, but when in the pits, the supporter is all the team has. Since that first season, the Royal Challengers fan base has been archetypal in that respect.

The Bangalore factor

The Chinnaswamy has played its part in many victories and never because of the playing conditions it provides. It really has been a treat for the average Bangalorean fan – held in high regard in cricketing circles – to build a tradition where he is there to say to his team, “Go on, don’t worry about us turning up.” In a cricketing fraternity built around individuals who turned into cults, the RCB faithful has lent a refreshing meaning to the idea of a team.

But there is a sense this time that the faith has not been repaid. It has been a sensational year of cricket in Karnataka. The domestic team, much like the IPL franchise, has had a reputation for failing to show up in crucial games. So when Vinay Kumar led his team to three out of four championship titles with near-invincible status, the supporters had every right to believe that the strategy for the auctions would be a metaphorical no-brainer. As it turns out, someone forgot to include “metaphor” on the tactics sheet.

Let’s make no secret about the fact that the Royal Challengers look a severely depleted side going into this tournament. It takes some nerve to say that about a team with the names in the top-order that we are only too familiar with. But in T20 cricket, your bowling wins you games and your squad’s depth wins you tournaments; it isn’t a pretty picture on either of those fronts and RCB’s poor show in the auctions could well mean that they run the risk of a repeat performance of season one.

However, in a year heralded by local heroes, the Bangalore faithful might not have as much patience as they did back then. Especially when they already have a reason to deny outright that this is not a Bangalore team in the first place.

The pressure game

It doesn’t reflect well upon a team when a list of negatives could go on and far outweigh the positives. Not many teams have gone too far with a top-heavy batting, a nondescript middle order and three-quarters of a spinner. There is pressure on Kohli; he was next-in-line after Tendulkar one year ago.

Now the expectations when he walks out to bat have all but put him there.  Muralitharan and Albie Morkel have seen better days. There’s pressure on Yuvraj Singh because every time the middle order falls short or the bowling doesn’t click or someone rolls an ankle, the disaster that is his price tag will come into focus.

To put it bluntly, the Royal Challengers do not look convincing and if they don’t take off in the first few games, they might not be returning to familiar home support. And all results aside, that will be their biggest challenge of the season. The IPL is built on financial stronghold as much as it is on the sport; at the intersection of that Venn diagram will always be the follower.

The Royal Challengers cannot afford to follow up a poor auction with a mediocre performance, they have too much to lose. Virat Kohli has faced adversities before, but leading this team of mercenaries might be his biggest challenge yet; and in times when Dhoni is losing favour as a leader, if Kohli succeeds, an entire nation succeeds.