The legendary Indian batsman Rahul Dravid recently spoke out about the terrible stampede that took place during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s June 4 IPL win celebrations. He expressed his sorrow over the disaster, which left over 50 people injured and 11 people dead. The Bengaluru-born former coach and captain of India expressed his sympathies and described how a moment of athletic triumph descended into sorrow.
After an 18-year wait, RCB’s historic IPL title victory on June 3 sparked a festival-style celebration in Bengaluru. The following day, RCB held festivities in Bengaluru to commemorate this accomplishment, which included a triumph procession from Vidhana Soudha to the storied M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
But what was supposed to be a homecoming instead descended into terrible mayhem. Notably, more individuals than anticipated turned up to celebrate their team’s victory—roughly two lakh people. The large throng proved to be too much for the organisation and infrastructure to manage, despite the traffic police’s early worries.
“Very disappointing, indeed. Very sad, of course. People are thought of. This city has a strong interest for sports. This is where I’m from. Cricket is not the only sport that people adore. Whether it’s our football squad or our kabaddi team, the city’s residents are huge sports fans and have followed all of the local teams. The RCB is, of course, a highly popular squad. It’s terribly sad and regrettable what happened.
And we’re thinking of everyone who was hurt, but especially of those who died,” Rahul Dravid said to NDTV.
Due to the tragedy, RCB was compelled to immediately end its stadium fan interaction program. While numerous executives faced legal repercussions, the franchise declared that each victim’s family will receive INR 10 lakh in compensation.
Significant organisational changes resulted from the tragedy; A Shankar, the secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), and ES Jairam, the treasurer, resigned, asserting moral responsibility for the accident. An FIR was filed against the franchise, and Nikhil Sosale, the head of marketing for RCB, was taken into custody in relation to the event. Notably, Rahul Dravid, who is currently the coach of the Rajasthan Royals, chose not to participate in the post-tragic political blame game.