Picture this scene. An Indian Premier League (IPL) match featuring Sunrisers Hyderabad, the hometown team, and Lucknow Super Giants, one of the expansion sides added to the competition in 2022. Hyderabad is around 500km away from Bangalore, while roughly the same distance separates Lucknow and Delhi. Yet, when the Hyderabad fans were upset about an on-field incident, they chose to heckle a member of Lucknow’s support staff by chanting “Kohli, Kohli!”
Virat Kohli is a Delhi boy, who has spent each of the 16 IPL seasons playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore. He had no ostensible connection with either side playing the game, yet the loudest shouts of the evening featured him. It brought to mind a comment made a decade ago by a former Indian cricketer. “Indians don’t love cricket as much as they love cricketers,” he said.
When you see the rapturous reception that an MS Dhoni or, to a lesser extent, Kohli get wherever they play in the IPL, it strengthens his argument. All notions of on-field rivalry are forgotten when Dhoni windmills his bat and walks to the middle. To see Kolkata Eden Gardens as a sea of yellow for the Knight Riders’s home game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) was little short of bizarre.
There really are no parallels anywhere else. For example, Paolo Maldini was an Italian football legend for two decades. But if he went to Napoli or Roma wearing the AC Milan shirt, he would be heckled and whistled like any other opposition player.
In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Spain’s La Liga was a narrative that had Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at its heart. For six straight seasons, one or the other finished top scorer in the league. Barcelona, under Pep Guardiola’s coaching, won everything possible in 2008-09, but it was Madrid under Jose Mourinho that breached the ‘impossible’ 100-point barrier in the league.
Yet, when Ronaldo played at the Camp Nou, or Messi had to visit the Santiago Bernabeu, the fans’ love of football was superseded by rivalry. It didn’t matter how dextrous Messi’s feet were, or how beautifully he glided across the turf with ball at his feet. It didn’t matter how high Ronaldo leapt to head the ball into the net, or how powerfully he struck free-kicks. For the opposition fans, they were simply ‘the enemy’.
Recently, the TV-viewing figures for the first 48 matches of the ongoing IPL season were made available. And if you saw them, it was easy enough to think that the ten-team league was a two-team obsession. Whether it was because of the notion that this might be Dhoni’s last season, or not, the four-most watched games, each with a peak concurrent-viewing figure of 5 crores or higher, all featured Chennai. There was another Chennai game in the top 10 as well.
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Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) also featured five times in the list, with Chennai-Bangalore the second-most-watched match with a peak of 5.2 crore viewers. The only game in the top 10 that didn’t feature either side was, curiously, Punjab against Hyderabad. Two teams that have always struggled to match the following that other franchises have, but in this case, viewers tuned in to watch a boy-on-burning-deck innings of 99 from Shikhar Dhawan, the Punjab Kings captain.
The Chennai obsession isn’t surprising. From the day they drafted Dhoni more than 15 years ago, the franchise built the brand around him and his personality. Four title wins and nine appearances in the final strengthened the bond, as did the team’s championing of their Whistle-Podu support. Chennai’s followers were the first to trek in numbers to away games, a noisy and vocal minority at opposition grounds. These days, there are even special train carriages commandeered for the purpose.
Bangalore, though, have never won the IPL. They reached the last of their three finals in 2016. But as with Dhoni and Chennai, Kolhi has been associated with the franchise since its inception. The fans have seen his entire journey, from hot-headed Under-19 star to best batter in the world and senior statesman. For over a decade, he has been the face of the franchise, and it helped too that the star cast around him – AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle and Yuzvendra Chahal, to name just three – also stayed for years, becoming part of the RCB family.
It was fascinating to note that Mumbai Indians featured just twice on the list, in games against Bangalore and Chennai. Mumbai too kept a core group – Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga and Harbhajan Singh – together for years, but have not been able to command the same level of fanaticism from fans. Could it be that they didn’t encourage the sort of personality cults that have flourished in Chennai and Bangalore?
Rohit Sharma has captained his team to more IPL titles than Dhoni, and he has almost as many runs in the competition as Kohli. But despite being India captain as well now, Rohit isn’t serenaded at away stadiums in the way that Dhoni is, not does he have the pan-Indian fan base of a Kohli.
One shouldn’t overlook the role of social media in this either. Well over a decade ago, Bangalore were bringing out fan-based initiatives. Their social-media game is exceptional, and the same can be said of Chennai too. And it’s no coincidence either that that messaging has often had Dhoni and Kohli at its heart.
Ultimately though, any fan, anywhere in the world, wants to see that the star loves the badge on the shirt just as much as he or she does. When Dhoni returned to Chennai in 2018 after the franchise had been banned for two seasons, he was so overcome with emotion that he sobbed. When Messi left Barcelona in 2021, he couldn’t get through his farewell speech without breaking down. They may be paid millions, but as long as fans are sure they’re not mercenaries, they will take them to heart.
Also Read: No Wiggle Room For Bangalore in Clash of Royal Sides
If these viewing figures have any lesson for other franchises, it lies in the value of continuity and consistency. Don’t chop and change at every auction. Build your teams around an established core. And understand that your players – not owners or celebrity fans, however high-profile they may be – are your brand.
If Chennai go deeper into the competition, and it now looks like a play-off spot is near-certain, expect these figures to be shattered as well. The Dhoni Farewell Express is coming, and it’s only gathering steam.
Top 10 matches for IPL 2023 on Star Sports (Most Concurrent Viewers)
Gujarat Titans vs Chennai Super Kings: 5.6 Cr
Chennai Super Kings vs Royal Challengers Bangalore: 5.2 Cr
Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders: 5.1 Cr
Chennai Super Kings vs Lucknow Super Giants: 5 Cr
Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians: 4.6 Cr
Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings: 4.5 Cr
Kolkata Knight Riders vs Royal Challengers Bangalore: 4.5 Cr
Punjab Kings vs Sunrisers Hyderabad: 4.3 Cr
Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kolkata Knight Riders: 4.1 Cr
Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Lucknow Super Giants: 4 Cr