Screengrab from Instagram video.
Cricket: An Indian fan of Royal Challengers Bengaluru, the Indian Premier League franchise, showed his love for the team by unfurling its flag at his graduation ceremony in the United States. A clip of his act went viral on social media.
The clip was shared by an Instagram user, Likhitha, and she added a caption to her post, "@royalchallengers.bengaluru is a team that taught us fans many things beyond cricket, '15 years strong, and still standing by my team's side, true loyalty knows no defeat!' Just a junior continuing the ritual started by her senior @theruthviksankar hope my juniors would do the same."
The viral clip first shows a man walking on the stage to receive his degree from the officials of the University of Michigan. He takes out the flag of Royal Challengers Bengaluru, unfurls it and displays it in front of everyone. Later, a woman, the social media user who posted the video, comes to the stage and displays a jersey of the IPL team. She also receives her degree from there.
The clip shared six days ago had gathered more than four million views and four lakh likes but received mixed opinions from those who commented. When some were wowed at the graduates' love for the game and tournament, some opinioned that it was not the stage to display their affection or passion for a game.
This year, the IPL started on March 22, bringing cricket fans in India before screens. Royal Challengers Bengaluru has yet to win the title, even after a decade and a half since the tournament started. The team has always celebrated players and retained the legendary Virat Kohli since the first edition in 2008, but luck never came their way. But the franchise's fans never left them.
Even in this season, the team had a terrible start for their campaign, losing 7 out of eleven matches. Now, they have to win all their remaining matches with higher run rates if possible.