11 people killed, several injured outside Bengaluru stadium when a stampede occured.
The rush outside the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, which claimed 11 lives, has been described by BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia as an eye-opener for the board and IPL teams. According to him, a decision regarding holding events with anticipated large numbers will be made by the board shortly.
Deaths outside the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium hampered Royal Challengers Bengaluru's entry at their home field on Wednesday for their title celebration. A youngster was among the dead, and numerous others were hurt in the crowd outside the stadium where RCB continued to celebrate their victory.
“This is an eye-opener, and we have to think about what we should do in such situations. There will be a winner every year, and there will be a celebration in their home city. So we have to learn a lesson so it doesn’t happen in the future. At this moment, the BCCI has no control over private celebrations of a franchise,” Saikia told the Indian Express.
As things stand, the post-tournament events are not the BCCI's domain to enter.
“Yesterday (Tuesday), we had 132,000 people at the Narendra Modi Stadium. We took care of every minor detail about safety and crowd management, and there was not a single incident, even though all the stands were full. There was proper policing and control. Something went terribly wrong today in Bengaluru, but the BCCI has no role to play,” Saikia added.
IPL chairman Arun Dhumal had stated that they didn’t know who had organized the event.
“We have taken note and will see that such incidents never happen again. We had no knowledge of any victory parade or any celebrations taking place in Bengaluru. We had no idea who organized it and how so many fans came there. We will look into the matter,” he stated.
Dhumal defended RCB for continuing to celebrate inside the stadium despite the events outside.
“The RCB management also had no idea what was happening because they were inside the stadium. As soon as we got to know, we spoke to RCB officials, and they told us that they were winding things up,” he said.
The Bengaluru event was scheduled to begin at the Vidhan Soudha and finish at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, which is less than two kilometers away. It indicated that a sizable crowd had gathered in a brief area.
Confusion was exacerbated by the police's refusal to grant authorization for an open-top bus parade. Additionally, just a few hours before the event in the stadium, the franchise announced that special passes would be available.
Ajinkya Naik, the head of the Mumbai Cricket Association, provided insight into how they organized India's triumph parade following their T20 World Cup triumph the previous year.
“When we were told that a victory parade was going to be organized, we followed whatever the Mumbai Police told us to do. Our association had handled such a parade in 2007, also, but it was the local authorities who guided us. We had to close the gates two hours before the Indian team arrived. And fans were informed well in advance that no one would be allowed inside the stadium after a certain time. The Mumbai Police had appealed to fans to reach Marine Drive well in advance for the victory procession in the evening,” Naik told The Indian Express.