Royal Challengers Bangalore

Infobox cricket team
county=Royal Challengers Bangalore


colors = |colors= Red and Golden Yellowcite web|url=http://cricket.indiatimes.com/News/QuickiesBangalore_Challengers_have_it_all_worked_out/quickiearticleshow/2939027.cms|work=http://cricket.indiatimes.com|title=Royal Challengers have it all worked out|date=2008-04-09|accessdate=2008-04-09] Cr-IPL/Flags|bang
coach = flagicon|IND Venkatesh Prasad [ [http://www.iplcricketlive.com/indian-premier-league-teams/ipl-bangalore-royal-challengers/bangalore-royal-challengers-details/ DLF - IPL - Indian Premier League - Bangalore Royal Challengers Details ] ]
captain= flagicon|IND Rahul Dravid
founded=2008
ground = M. Chinnaswamy Stadium
capacity= 55,000
owner = UB Group
ceo = flagicon|IND Brijesh Patel
cco = Martin Crowe
|website= [http://www.royalchallengers.com Royal Challengers Bangalore]

Royal Challengers Bangalore (also referred to as RCB) is the team representing the city of Bangalore in the Indian Premier League, the inaugural Twenty20 cricket tournament to be held in India. The team is owned by the liquor magnate Vijay Mallya, through his flagship firm UB Group.cite web|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/FullcoverageStoryPage.aspx?id=be59ed21-9ccf-4d13-853e-33ea5e709dacIPL_Special&&IsCricket=true&Headline=Bangalore+team+named+'Royal+Challengers'|work=HindustanTimes|date=2008-02-20|accessdate=2008-02-20|title=Bangalore team named 'Royal Challengers'|author=G. Krishnan] Brijesh Patel is the CEO of the team and Rahul Dravid, the captain of the team is the Icon Player. Martin Crowe, the former New Zealand captain, is the CCO (Chief Cricketing Officer) of the management team.cite web|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4411230a1823.html|work=Stuff.co.nz|author=Chris Barclay|title=Martin Crowe gets in on Indian Twenty20 action|date=2008-02-22|accessdate=2008-02-22]

Franchise history

Indian Premier League is a cricket tournament being organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI - the governing body for cricket in India), and backed by the International Cricket Council.cite web|title=Everything you wanted to know about the Indian Premier League|work=Cricinfo|url=http://content-www.cricinfo.com/baggygreen/content/story/337868.html|accessdate=2008-02-20] For the inaugural tournament to be held in Apr-Jun 2008, the BCCI had finalised a list of 8 teams who will be participating in the tournament. The teams representing 8 different cities of India, including Bangalore, were put up on auction in Mumbai on 20 February 2008 and the Bangalore team was won by Vijay Mallya, who paid US$111.6 million for it. This was the second highest bid for a team in the IPL, next only to Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries' bid of $111.9 million for the Mumbai team. Bollywood actresses Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone, and Sandalwood film stars Ramya and Upendra are the brand ambassadors of the team. cite web|url=http://www.hindu.com/2008/01/25/stories/2008012558140100.htm|work=The Hindu|date=2008-01-25|title= Mukesh, Mallya top bidders for IPL|accessdate=2008-02-20]

2008 IPL Season

The team won only 4 matches in this season, losing 10 matches and managed to secure only the last but one position in the points table. Only one of their batsman, Rahul Dravid managed to score more than 300 runs in the tournament and they had to even bench their costliest foreign player, Jacques Kallis for few of the matches due to his poor form.cite web|url=http://stats.cricinfo.com/ipl/engine/records/batting/most_runs_career.html?id=3519;type=tournament|work=Cricinfo.com|title=Most Runs, Indian Premier League, 2007/08|accessdate=2007-05-30] cite web|url=http://content-www.cricinfo.com/ipl/content/story/350817.html|title=Bangalore's wretched summer continues|accessdate=2007-05-30|work=Cricinfo.com] The string of failures mid-way through the season led to the sacking of the CEO, Charu Sharma who was replaced with Brijesh Patel.cite web|url=http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ipl/content/story/350735.html|work=Cricinfo.com|title=Biggest mistake was to abstain from selection - Mallya|accessdate=2008-05-23] Even coach Venkatesh Prasad was about to be sacked, but he saved his job by publicly apologising for the team's failure. Vijay Mallya went on to publicly criticise Dravid and Sharma for the failures by saying that they had not selected the right team. He regretted that he had made a mistake by not getting involved in the selection of the team. They were the only team in the IPL to try out 11 opening combinations in 14 games.

Etymology

Vijay Mallya wanted to associate one of his top-selling liquor brands, either "No. 1 McDowell's" or "Royal Challenge" with the team.cite web|url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ET_Cetera/No_1_McDowells_or_Royal_Challenge_to_be_Bangalore_IPL_team_sponsor/articleshow/2729341.cms|title=No. 1 McDowell's or Royal Challenge to be Bangalore IPL team sponsor|author=Shruti Sabharwal|date=2008-01-25|accessdate=2008-02-20] The latter was chosen, hence the name. The jersey colours of the team are red and golden yellow, the same as the Karnataka state flag [ [http://www.cricketzone.com/news/news_columns/2008-04-17-2901-4.html Indian Premier League - Where cricket meets entertainment : Cricket COLUMNS : CricketZone.Com ] ] , and the logo consists of the RC emblem with "Royal Challengers Bangalore" in standard format.

Theme Song

A theme song called "Thakkath Geete" has been composed in support of the Red & Yellow team, with the help of TV9.

Players

The players in the team (except for Rahul Dravid, who was the Icon Player), were selected in an auction conducted by BCCI on 20 February, 2008. South Africa's Jacques Kallis at $900,000 became the costliest player to be selected to play for the Royal Challengers. This meant that Rahul Dravid, being the Icon Player would be paid $1,035,000 (15% more than the highest bid player in the team). Other players selected included the Indian Test cricket captain Anil Kumble along with his team-mates Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan, West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Aussies Nathan Bracken and Cameron White, South Africa's Mark Boucher (Wicket Keeper) and Dale Steyn. The team also included Pakistan cricket team's vice captain Misbah-ul-Haq although he wasn't in the playing 11 for most part of the tournament.

Current squad

Batsmen

Administration and coaching staff

Front Office:
*Owner - UB Group
*CEO - Brijesh Patel
*CCO - Martin Crowe
*Ambassadors -Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Ramya, Upendra [ [http://in.sports.yahoo.com/cricket/ipl/team-profile/bangalore.html Cricket Team Profiles - Yahoo! India Cricket ] ]

Coaches:
*Head Coach- Venkatesh Prasad
*Assistant Head Coach- Vijay Bharadwaj
*Physiotherapist- TBA

Fixtures and results

Royal Challengers Bangalore 2008 SeasonWebSlice-begin|id=1|title=Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL FixturesWebSlice-end

External links

* [http://www.royalchallengers.com Official Royal Challengers Bangalore Site]

References

* [http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/sports/bangalore-get-misbah-mumbai-grab-prince-in-second-ipl-auction_10026351.html Second round auction results]