Hyderabad|India|October'2009: Undying faith and passion for the team; exceptional writing, photography and motivational skills; a penchant for the sport were some qualities that brought about a lifetime opportunity for the 3 lucky winners of the Fanatic Fans Challenge. Prashant Dhanke, Bangalore was adjudged the Chief RCB Blogger, Siva Kumar, Hyderabad was crowned the Chief Photographer and Siddharth Lodha, Bangalore was designated as the Chief RCB Fan for the Royal Challengers. This team of selected three will be given the opportunity to stay and travel along with the Royal Challengers team, and granted preferential access to all RCB matches. The three chosen ones will fulfil their duties as “content contributors” to the RCB Fan oriented sections of the Royal Challengers website, during the Champions League.

Announcing the winners, Anil Kumble, Captain, Royal Challengers said, “This surely is a great opportunity for all Royal Challengers fans. I congratulate the chosen three and wish them all the best. They now have an excellent but a huge responsibility to run the RCB Fan channel during the Champions League. They will power the behind-the-scene stories and constantly update site with insights and news. For me, this is a unique and humbling experience to see the passion of our fans and have them work alongside with the team this season.”

The Fanatic Fans Challenge was initiated to identify three Royal Challengers’ Fans with exceptional writing, photography and motivational skills. The contest called for online entries through the Royal Challengers’ website, www.royalchallengers.com. The entries were then asked to collect public votes and references and the top 27, nine from each category, from over 3700 entries, were selected for the ground finale. The finalists were judged by the Royal Challengers Coach, Ray Jennings and the Captain, Anil Kumble.