Our Bureau
Bengaluru
A great occasion in the history of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru franchise will now always be scarred by the horrific disaster that followed in their home ground – the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. The RCB management and the government of Karnataka organised a victory celebration at the stadium but it was reported that the authorities didn’t expect the number of people that might show up to the stadium. This led to the horrific stampede that took the lives of 11 fans and left more than 40 severely injured.
Syed Kirmani, Indian legend and hero of India’s 1983 World Cup victory, spoke on the mishap that happened at the Bangalore stadium. He termed the incident as a ‘Deadly Welcome’ that RCB has received after their long-awaited championship. He commented on the change in fan culture from his time to the current times.
Kirmani said, “My condolences to bereaved families. This was a deadly welcome to IPL champions. In our times, there was no such media hype and there was no TV and there was no such thing which could lead to such things. The fans of our times were not as crazy as fans of today and especially in the IPL, the crazy fans are unimaginable particularly as you could see lakhs and lakhs were around just to get a glimpse of these great heroes.”
He also believed that the franchise and the government should have been a bit more careful and the celebrations could’ve waited a while. As the management of the event was very poorly handled, organisers should’ve waited a while to prepare better for the celebrations.
“On that count I suppose if RCB waited for 17 (18) years to become champions and organizers, whosoever it may be could have waited for a while for things to settle down and then organize a show to felicitate these great heroes of RCB,” Kirmani stated.
