The intense rivalry between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) has become more than the game in recent years, and former India cricketer Robin Uthappa doesn’t like it at all.

Both the IPL teams have a massive fan following across the country, and two of the biggest icons of Indian cricket -- Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni -- are associated with them.

While CSK have an upper hand in the rivalry historically, RCB have recently shifted the momentum in their favour, emerging victorious in the last three encounters — including both matches this season.

Uthappa, who has played for both RCB and CSK in the past, is not pleased with the recent episodes as he highlighted the mocking of opposition team and fans heckling each other.

"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," Uthappa said on his YouTube channel.

He cited the example of RCB fans holding up white T-shirts with black strips to mock CSK's two-year ban, claiming that the rivalry has gone beyond the sport, which is a concerning sign.

"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," Uthappa added.

In the ongoing IPL 2025, RCB occupy second spot in the team standings and need one win from their remaining two league matches to seal a berth in the playoffs.

On the other hand, CSK became the first team to be knocked out of the playoffs race and continue to languish at the bottom of the points table.