Following Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) first and historic IPL title in 2025 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, former Indian cricketer and legend Sunil Gavaskar shared an out-of-the-box take.
He credited the victory to fans and players who toned down on the usage of the slogan 'Ee Saala Cup Namde', which he believes had become a jinx for the franchise.
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In the previous years, RCB adopted the slogan of 'Ee Sala Cup Namde', which translates to 'This season the cup will be ours'. Fans and players alike have mentioned it many a time in the past when things started to fall in their favour, but ultimately led to disheartening losses that extended their wait for the elusive trophy.
However, the widely known slogan was toned down a bit this season, which Gavaskar thinks was instrumental in breaking RCB's IPL trophy jinx.
Check: What is RCB's war cry Ee Sala Cup Namde?
What did Sunil Gavaskar say?
Former Indian cricketer and legend Sunil Gavaskar felt that toning down on the usage of the slogan 'Ee Sala Cup Namde' for a large part of the season was instrumental in relieving some of the unnecessary pressure on the team.
Speaking to India Today, Gavaskar said:
"This was the one year when that popular slogan—“Ee sala cup namde”—was more muted than usual. It wasn’t in everyone’s face like before, and maybe that helped. It almost felt like that slogan had become a bit of a jinx, and once it was toned down, things worked out."
He further congratulated RCB for the brand of cricket they played throughout the season, especially in the last three wins against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Punjab Kings.
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"Congratulations to RCB—they’ve played top-class cricket throughout the IPL. Especially their last 2–3 performances were outstanding: chasing 230+ against LSG, demolishing Punjab in Qualifier 1 in just 14 overs, and then keeping their nerve in the final despite being 15–20 runs short of a par score."
RCB managed to score only 190 runs in the first innings at Ahmedabad. Virat Kohli's 43(35) and Jitesh Sharma's handy cameo of 24(10) helped Bengaluru reach a fighting total, despite brilliant efforts from Kyle Jamieson and Arshdeep Singh with the ball.
Punjab started well but lost their way in the middle as they fell short by just 6 runs in the end, as their wait for a first-ever IPL trophy continues. Shashank Singh's valiant effort of 61*(30) went in vain, as Krunal Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar emerged as the stars in the final, as RCB won their maiden IPL trophy.