Royal Challengers Bangalore – A franchise cricket team based in Karnataka, Bengaluru, popularly abbreviated as the RCB in the Indian Premier League, has registered its place among the top five (5) sporting clubs across the world on social media in terms of impressions and engagement. RCB was the only cricket team on the list of top football clubs worldwide.
As per the released reports, Royal Challengers Bangalore was ranked on fifth (5) place in the list, which also included infamous Football giants such as La Liga Giants Real Madrid, ranked one (1) with around 2.09 billion interactions, FC Barcelona was ranked second (2) with 1.78 billion interactions along with Manchester United and Paris Saint Germany on third and fourth respectively.
The interesting list was published based on the data analysis, reach, impressions and interactions of all the mentioned sporting clubs on the popular social media platform ‘Instagram’ last year.
The platform is being used by the majority of the population across the world with multidimensional purposes such as sharing photographs, videos, short content of reels etc.
RCB has achieved this unique feat due to the exceptional and extraordinary popularity and support it has been gaining from around the world despite being a franchise cricket team in Indian Premier League.
RCB was founded in 2008 by United Spirits and named after it’s subsidiary liquor company ‘Royal Challengers. Since its foundation, same as the beginning year of the Indian Premier League, RCB has been on a rollercoaster ride and appeared in all fifteen seasons till now.
During the journey filled with ups and downs, Royal Challengers Bangalore has not won the trophy but ended up as the runners-up on three different occasions in 2009, 2011, the year of India won the One Day International World Cup and 2016, and created a lot of memories for its fans for all these years.
While mentioning the journey of Royal Challengers Bangalore as a team, it is essential to take a look and understand and acknowledge the brief history of one of the most popular cricket teams across the globe.
The history of RCB is rich with countless memorable turns and twists, along with the superstars it has signed over the years.
In the inaugural year of the Indian Premier League in 2008, just after India won its first Twenty-Twenty World Cup in South Africa, the twenty overs format was new to the world. Hence, the players and cricketers performed well in such a new format at that time and were in sheer demand for the inaugural auction.
Taking the dimensions and dynamics of the T20 format and all its demands, the management of Royal Challengers Bangalore went for the young and experienced cricketers and players in the first-ever auction.
They signed renowned cricket superstars from across the world in its first season, such as Anil Kumble, who led the team along with Jacques Kallis, Zaheer Khan, Mark Boucher, Dale Steyn and Cameron White, etc., among the international and national cricket players, the most significant and historical signing made by the RCB was ‘Virat Kohli’ who is the current modern-day legend of the game.
He was picked by the side due to his performance and captaincy skills during the under-19 world cup, which was sealed by the Indian under-19 team under his captaincy.
The signing of Virat Kohli is recognised as the historical and most path-breaking auction signing by the Royal Challengers Bangalore, as he was the only player in the RCB dugout retained by the management a year later in 2009.
He was backed and shown exceptional confidence in his abilities by the RCB support staff due to his remarkable performances and game skills in international cricket while playing for the RCB.
Although, even after having such big names from the cricket world, RCB did not do well in the first season of the Indian Premier League but received respect and support from the fans due to putting all into the tournament.
Despite not having an IPL trophy in the cabinet, RCB has managed to gather the profound love and devotion of the Bengaluru fans along with the entire nation because of the popularity comes along global cricketing superstars such as Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers, Chris Gayle, Glen Maxwell who joined the side later on.
Furthermore, the reason behind receiving profound support, love and affection from the fans is creating a unique environment and reflecting the same to the fans in every way possible.
The real love story between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and its lovers started in 2013 when Virat Kohli took over the captaincy role full-time while having his companions alongside such as South African legend AB De Villiers and West Indies destructive batsman Chris Gayle.
Since then, the whole game of Royal Challengers Bangalore turned around positively as the side was led by a young and enthusiastic captain who was also an integral part of the Indian national cricket team.
He set the tone for the team with his attitude and led the team to a better position while getting equal support from the teammates and the continued backing of the management.
The entire picture of the love story between RCB and the fans started to change with different dimensions, and the team started evolving and engaging more with the fans and supporters through various channels and ways.
In his words, the RCB captain at that time, Virat Kohli, has always said that he and the team holds a vision of playing for their fans and delivering 100% of the effort in every game to give back the smallest form of love and gratitude that the franchise fans of Bengaluru have showered on the team in all these years.
Over time, the dimensions and dynamics of the team have evolved and changed comprehensively but for the better and more extraordinary, as the core values and culture in the RCB dressing room have remained the same, which is “Playing for their fans and delivering to the best” which has helped the side in excelling and becoming the most popular cricket franchise team around the world.
The longstanding and unbreakable relationships between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and its fans have been standing firm on the principle and foundation of ‘Loyalty’ as the fans of RCB are popularly known for their loyal and raw emotions and love that they have for their home team despite all the ups and down over the years.
The Bengaluru fans are called the most loyal fan base in the world in any given sport for the continuous support shown for their team. Over the years, as the group evolved, the ways of keeping in touch with the fans have also changed and become easier and more accessible with the help of technology.
The 5th ranking achieved by the cricket franchise was only possible because of the new exciting ways and social media channels, which have made the interactions and engagement between the fans and their beloved team much easier and more fun than ever.
The franchise has its own content creation team, which covers every small and big move of the teams and releases the content for the fans through which fans get to know their stars from a close distance.
The increasing value of online content has been increasing with the help of digital convenience for quite a long now. The stars are involved in the regular interviews and shows during the tournament period of two months. The content is made public and totally free to make the fans feel more connected and closer to their home team.
In the end, the mentioned ways are the few reasons behind the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s success in gaining exceptional support and unconditional love from their loyal fans.
The primary and prominent reason behind getting featured among the top five (5) sporting clubs around the world is the same as mentioned as the official social media handles of the franchise have been receiving a substantial amount of responses and impressions from their fans worldwide who want to be connected to their favourite team on and off-season.
