Ahead of the resumption of the Indian Premier League (IPL), former India batter Robin Uthappa has bashed the ugly fan war between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) supporters. Over the past few seasons, the banter between CSK and RCB fans has become ugly at times, with both sets of supporters firing ugly jibes at each other. Even the matches between the two sides have led to a few heated moments. While CSK have enjoyed historical success, RCB have had the edge over them in the last two seasons, winning three out of four contests.

Days before the suspension of the IPL, RCB edged out CSK in a thriller to bolster their chances of qualifying for the playoffs. Prior to the match, RCB fans were seen selling ‘CSK jail’ jerseys, mocking them over the two seasons they were banned from the IPL (2016 and 2017).

However, Uthappa, who represented both the franchises during his IPL career, wasn’t impressed with the RCB fans holding up white T-shirts with black strips to mock CSK supporters.

“It was pretty intense, Outside the stadium, they were mocking the team, the players of the team when the bus was leaving, that was one thing that I saw, which I thought was in bad taste. The other one that I saw were the fans fighting with each other. I saw women being heckled, which felt unsavory, to be very honest. We saw that even in Chennai last year, again, uncalled for. It’s not on whatsoever,” said Uthappa on his YouTube channel.

“It has gotten pretty intense. They are holding up jerseys, white T-shirts marked with black lines, stating the two years that CSK were banned for. They have kind of written MS’ number on it, and Thala under it, depicting that they were in jail for two years, or whatever. It’s getting a little beyond sport which concerns me. Because at the end of the day, this is a sport,” he added.

RCB need a win from their remaining three matches to qualify for the playoffs, while CSK are already out of the top four race.