‘Same fan will abuse me silently in DMs every day’: Dinesh Karthik points out hypocrisy of RCB's loyal fanbase

Veteran wicketkeeper batter Dinesh Karthik opened up on the love-hate relationship with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru fans as he is currently enjoying his stint with the franchise. Karthik is one of the few players who has been part of the IPL since its inception in 2008. He started his IPL career with Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) and then played for Kings XI Punjab followed by Mumbai Indians and joined RCB for his stint there in 2014 but later led KKR.

Dinesh Karthik re-joined RCB in IPL 2022.(AFP)

In IPL 2022, RCB splashed big money to re-sign Karthik and assigned him the role of finisher.

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The Bengaluru-based franchise has one of the biggest fanbases across the league despite no trophy in their men's team cabinet.

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Karthik shared his views on RCB's loyal fanbase and how they treat their players as a family which works in both good and bad ways.

"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, X is not a good player,” they will pounce on that person," Karthik told Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube channel.

However, Karthik revealed the dark side of the RCB base which exposed its toxicity as some of them abused them in the DMs.

"On a personal level, that same fan will abuse me silently in DMs 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," Karthik continued.

The veteran wicketkeeper asserted that he has played for several franchises but the RCB fanbase stood out for him.

"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've been part of many teams. You know all of them have fans, but RCB is incredible," he concluded.

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