Inflate and deflate: RCB’s parody press conferences during IPL 2020 were full of laughs
After the horrors of 2020, slide into the new year with a smile.
Another Indian Premier League season, another tournament without the trophy for Royal Challengers Bangalore. The 13th edition extended Virat Kohli’s wait for his first IPL title.
The India captain, who has been in three IPL finals in 13 years, was defeated the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the playoffs.
Off the field, however, RCB had a great season on social media as their digital content reached record engagement in the month of October. Their story-telling on match-days, stories of players’ journeys, and video snippets like what is in Virat Kohli’s kit-bag were well received. But at the centre of it all was a series of parody press conferences. RCB’s insider – a character named Mr Nags played by comedian Danish Sait – interacted with imaginary “generalists after each of the team’s matches.
The tournament had been moved to closed stadiums in the United Arab Emirates because of the coronavirus pandemic in India there were no real press conferences (at least the way we are used them). Instead, these parodies were videos filled with digs at other teams as well as self-deprecating humour that caught the attention of not just RCB fans, but IPL fans in general.
As Nags put would it, it gave us many emotional peaks, plenty of inflation and deflation of RCB fans’ hopes, but importantly, a fair share of laughs