Dinesh Karthik has played for six different IPL teams during his career. The batter has contributed well with the bat and his wicket-keeping skills with all the teams he has played so far. However, he believes that the fan following of Royal Challengers Bangalore is exceptional and describes them as ‘amazing’.
However, the veteran wicket-keeper batter also revealed the dark side of having fans during a conversation with former Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
If a player doesn’t perform well, Karthik says that the fans might start criticizing that player, even though they used to support them a lot before.
While talking to Ashwin on his YouTube channel, Karthik said, “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, 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 mentioned that the criticism extends beyond just the player, with fans sometimes involving the player’s family in it as well.
“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 said.
