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, the chairman of UB Group. 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.

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. 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. Bollywood actresses Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone, and Sandalwood film stars Ramya and Upendra are the brand ambassadors of the team

2008 IPL Season

Despite the large amount of money spent and buzz around the team, the franchise experienced some turbulent times very early on in its existence. The team won only 2 of its first 10 matches in the Inaugural IPL Season. In addition, the composition of the team was heavily criticized for resembling a Test Team more than a Twenty20 squad. As a result of these issues, the CEO of the team, Charu Sharma was unceremoniously sacked only months into his position. The owner of the franchise, Vijay Mallya later blamed team captain Rahul Dravid as one of the main causes of the team's poor performance. Mallya cited Dravid's poor captaincy, his inability to adapt to the T-20 format and differences between them over team selection during the player auction. The team eventually failed to enter the semifinals.

On top of the team's poor performance, the team also had their struggles off the field. On 16 May 2008, it was reported that Praveen Kumar, one of the team's strike bowlers, physically assaulted a doctor in his hometown of Meerut. It is alleged that at the time, Praveen was inebriated and being very difficult. Charges have yet to be imposed by the BCCI.

Etymology

Vijay Mallya wanted to associate one of his top-selling liquor brands, either No. 1 McDowell's or Royal Challenge with the team. 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, 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.

Administration and coaching staff

Front Office:

• Owner - Vijay Mallya
• CEO - Brijesh Patel
• CCO - Martin Crowe
• Ambassadors -Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Ramya, Upendra ^[15]

Coaches:

• Head Coach- Venkatesh Prasad
• Assistant Head Coach- Vijay Bharadwaj
• Physiotherapist- TBA

source : wikipedia