<p>Bengaluru: How Bengalurean is Royal Challengers Bengaluru?</p>.<p>You’d think the answer’s fairly obvious given the name and how integral the Indian Premier League franchise is to the zeitgeist of a new wave in the City, but it’s getting harder and harder to find that essential local touch to associate the side with. </p>.<p>Granted, the City itself is a cornucopia of cultures, races and intermingling demographics, but it rarely shrugs off its own. RCB, however, may be guilty of having done so for a while now, and it was rather obvious this time around. </p>.<p>For the first couple of seasons, RCB was the team that dove into Karnataka's talent pool and integrated as much local talent as possible. Coincidentally, since Virat Kohli’s elevation to captaincy in 2013, that number continued to drop surreptitiously. This, mind you, was the season when the Karnataka team completed the first of its two double-treble seasons!</p>.IPL 2025 | Is Virat Kohli returning as RCB skipper?.<p>RCB, on their website, have out a list of local players who have represented them, and it goes like this: Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, KL Rahul, Robin Uthappa, Vinay Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey, Stuart Binny, Abhimanyu Mithun, Sreenath Aravind, NC Aiyappa, Balachandra Akhil, KP Appanna, J Arunkumar, Bharat Chipli, Sunil Joshi, Devraj Patil, Raju Bhatkal, CM Gautam, Udit Patel, Abrar Kazi, Karun Nair, Praveen Dubey, Pavan Deshpande, Aniruddha Joshi…</p>.<p>One look at these names and you (as if assessing the age of a tree looking at the annual rings at its core) will notice that most of these players represented them a while ago. </p>.<p>This season, RCB acquired Devdutt Padikkal and Manoj Bhandage to offer a local touch. </p>.<p>Let’s face it, RCB is a private entity and they are well within their rights to not have to pick players from the City they represent. That’s how franchise-based leagues work, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. Even if the local government intervenes (as the Karnataka government supposedly did recently), the franchise doesn’t have to baulk under ‘pressure’. </p>.<p>That said, at this auction, they had reason enough to pick a couple of more Karnataka players on merit, and not come away looking parochial. Remember, even Rahul admitted recently that he would, as a ‘local Kannada boy’, love to return to play for RCB. </p>.<p>“We should have gone after KL (Rahul) more proactively and picked him up. He went for a steal at Rs 14 crore (to Delhi Capitals),” former India Test cricketer Vijay Bharadwaj told DH. “We should have fought for him and got him because, besides providing his excellent talent as a batter, he also is captaincy material. You could have built the team around him because he’s a very good leader and a very important core member.”</p>.<p>“Then you take Vyshak (Vijaykumar). He got selected for the Indian team for the South Africa T20 series after he did well with RCB. He was one of those local talents that really stood out for them and he was a great fit, but they let go of him. They were the ones who groomed him and they let him go. On many other sides, teams like Mumbai and Delhi, don’t do that. They know who they are grooming for the future and they trust them year after year on their journey. </p>.<p>Bharadwaj, who had to take special permission from the Capitals to speak about RCB after joining them as their scouting head, continued: “The other thing that the local players bring out is their understanding of the (M) Chinnaswamy stadium, and you cannot ignore that. It’s a small ground, but because these guys play so much at this venue, they understand dimensions better than someone from outside.” </p>.<p>Former India legend EAS Prasanna had another take on the matter. “I don't know if they really want to buy them (local players) because I have seen that whenever we won, there weren't so many local players in RCB. In earlier (IPL) days, we used to have more than 5-6 players in the squad. Now only two players just for the sake of taking they are taking,” he had said in an interaction a while ago. </p>.<p>Lest we ignore it, this disparity extends to the support staff too, and maybe, that’s where the problem lies. </p>.<p>Either way, if history is a trend, RCB won’t come out and offer a rationale behind their decisions. They are yet to dole one out for leaving out Faf du Plessis or letting go of Will Jacks so don’t waste a breath on their response(s).</p>.<p>Perhaps, we can imagine them saying '<em>solpa adjust maadi</em> (adjust a little bit), and just get on with it. </p>
<p>Bengaluru: How Bengalurean is Royal Challengers Bengaluru?</p>.<p>You’d think the answer’s fairly obvious given the name and how integral the Indian Premier League franchise is to the zeitgeist of a new wave in the City, but it’s getting harder and harder to find that essential local touch to associate the side with. </p>.<p>Granted, the City itself is a cornucopia of cultures, races and intermingling demographics, but it rarely shrugs off its own. RCB, however, may be guilty of having done so for a while now, and it was rather obvious this time around. </p>.<p>For the first couple of seasons, RCB was the team that dove into Karnataka's talent pool and integrated as much local talent as possible. Coincidentally, since Virat Kohli’s elevation to captaincy in 2013, that number continued to drop surreptitiously. This, mind you, was the season when the Karnataka team completed the first of its two double-treble seasons!</p>.IPL 2025 | Is Virat Kohli returning as RCB skipper?.<p>RCB, on their website, have out a list of local players who have represented them, and it goes like this: Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, KL Rahul, Robin Uthappa, Vinay Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey, Stuart Binny, Abhimanyu Mithun, Sreenath Aravind, NC Aiyappa, Balachandra Akhil, KP Appanna, J Arunkumar, Bharat Chipli, Sunil Joshi, Devraj Patil, Raju Bhatkal, CM Gautam, Udit Patel, Abrar Kazi, Karun Nair, Praveen Dubey, Pavan Deshpande, Aniruddha Joshi…</p>.<p>One look at these names and you (as if assessing the age of a tree looking at the annual rings at its core) will notice that most of these players represented them a while ago. </p>.<p>This season, RCB acquired Devdutt Padikkal and Manoj Bhandage to offer a local touch. </p>.<p>Let’s face it, RCB is a private entity and they are well within their rights to not have to pick players from the City they represent. That’s how franchise-based leagues work, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. Even if the local government intervenes (as the Karnataka government supposedly did recently), the franchise doesn’t have to baulk under ‘pressure’. </p>.<p>That said, at this auction, they had reason enough to pick a couple of more Karnataka players on merit, and not come away looking parochial. Remember, even Rahul admitted recently that he would, as a ‘local Kannada boy’, love to return to play for RCB. </p>.<p>“We should have gone after KL (Rahul) more proactively and picked him up. He went for a steal at Rs 14 crore (to Delhi Capitals),” former India Test cricketer Vijay Bharadwaj told DH. “We should have fought for him and got him because, besides providing his excellent talent as a batter, he also is captaincy material. You could have built the team around him because he’s a very good leader and a very important core member.”</p>.<p>“Then you take Vyshak (Vijaykumar). He got selected for the Indian team for the South Africa T20 series after he did well with RCB. He was one of those local talents that really stood out for them and he was a great fit, but they let go of him. They were the ones who groomed him and they let him go. On many other sides, teams like Mumbai and Delhi, don’t do that. They know who they are grooming for the future and they trust them year after year on their journey. </p>.<p>Bharadwaj, who had to take special permission from the Capitals to speak about RCB after joining them as their scouting head, continued: “The other thing that the local players bring out is their understanding of the (M) Chinnaswamy stadium, and you cannot ignore that. It’s a small ground, but because these guys play so much at this venue, they understand dimensions better than someone from outside.” </p>.<p>Former India legend EAS Prasanna had another take on the matter. “I don't know if they really want to buy them (local players) because I have seen that whenever we won, there weren't so many local players in RCB. In earlier (IPL) days, we used to have more than 5-6 players in the squad. Now only two players just for the sake of taking they are taking,” he had said in an interaction a while ago. </p>.<p>Lest we ignore it, this disparity extends to the support staff too, and maybe, that’s where the problem lies. </p>.<p>Either way, if history is a trend, RCB won’t come out and offer a rationale behind their decisions. They are yet to dole one out for leaving out Faf du Plessis or letting go of Will Jacks so don’t waste a breath on their response(s).</p>.<p>Perhaps, we can imagine them saying '<em>solpa adjust maadi</em> (adjust a little bit), and just get on with it. </p>