Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday (November 16) issued a statement from their official Twitter handle clarifying their stance on firecrackers following the immense outrage against Virat Kohli for his eco-friendly message on Diwali.

Hope you are all enjoying a happy and peaceful Diwali with family and friends. To clarify, the fireworks shown in RCB’s recent celebratory video was archival footage of UAE’s Flag Day celebrations. RCB continues to work hard to protect the environment like we’ve over the years.

— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) November 16, 2020

It had all started with India and RCB skipper Virat Kohli posting a message for his fans, vouching for an eco-friendly Diwali – laying special emphasis on not burning any crackers. Kohli’s message can be seen in this video. 

Happy Diwali  pic.twitter.com/USLnZnMwzT

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) November 14, 2020

But, as soon as he posted this message, a huge number of people brutally trolled Kohli for his double standards as a video of his recent birthday celebrations started going viral. In that video, Kohli is seen celebrating his birthday with his actress wife Anushka Sharma and all the RCB teammates as fireworks go on in the background. The video of his birthday can be seen below (skip to 5:50 to see the fireworks).

Happy Birthday Captain Kohli

Happy faces and positive vibes. The RCB family put together a special video to celebrate King Kohli’s birthday at 12 midnight. #PlayBold #IPL2020 #WeAreChallengers #Dream11IPL pic.twitter.com/ViaI9eItDV

— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) November 5, 2020

Kohli’s birthday video had originally been posted from the social media handles of RCB and now the franchise have come out clarifying the whole issue. They have thus come to the defense of their skipper by revealing that the video is actually from UAE’s flag day celebrations which was edited in the video to go along with it’s theme. The video, as per RCB, is not from Kohli’s birthday.

Kohli immediately started trending on Twitter and other platforms on Diwali with users laying into the star cricketer for hypocrisy. Although, it must be noted that Kohli didn’t shed any light on the whole fireworks footage himself and the subsequent resentment against him.

It only remains to be seen if RCB’s clarity helps in cooling down people’s recent resentment towards Kohli.