A joyous victory for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the IPL 2025 turned tragic as a stampede outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium resulted in 11 people losing their lives and 33 getting injured.
The unfortunate episode occurred on June 4 when passionate fans were attending the celebration event for the RCB team lifting their maiden IPL trophy.
Days after the tragic incident, former India cricketer Robin Uthappa expressed his anger, saying that his heart 'shudders' to think how the victims’ families will feel whenever RCB play a game.
An FIR has since been filed with the Bengaluru police naming RCB, officials in the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), and others as accused. RCB’s head of marketing and revenue, Nikhil Sosale, has been taken into custody while some police officers have been suspended as the investigation goes on.
“I was angry for almost a day and I really delayed even putting anything out on social media because I was so angry," Uthappa said in a video on his YouTube channel.
“In a sense, we were talking about a modicum of balance during the rivalries bit right? One can understand that in the celebrations you really want people to get close to the team and celebrate with them. I certainly think it could have been better planned, maybe take a day off to just plan the whole event because the city did deserve it, to be very honest," he added.
“The sad part is now that whenever there is an RCB game, my heart shudders to think what those families will experience. It just hurts, man. It truly truly hurts. I just think they didn’t have enough time to plan for it. In hindsight, doing it the very next day was an error in judgment," he remarked.
Uthappa further stated that RCB’s hard-earned triumph after 18 years will ‘always be marred’ by the 11 deaths and the agony of their families.
“The victory will always be marred by the loss of the lives of the people involved. It is so unfortunate that they can’t even celebrate the win that they have achieved after so many years, after so much hard work. It is going to be marred by this, and so you got to feel sad for the fans and, of course, for the players," he concluded.
RCB were supposed to hold a victory parade from Vidhana Soudha to Chinnaswamy Stadium. Throughout the day, there was no clarity on whether the parade would took place, as initially, the Bengaluru traffic police denied permission, citing that there might be too much chaos.
As soon as the Rajat Patidar-led side reached Vidhana Soudha to meet the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, a stampede was reported outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
RCB’s victory celebrations inside the iconic venue lasted for half an hour as Virat Kohli and Rajat Patidar delivered short speeches, thanking the crowd for their constant support. The entire squad then took a lap around the ground.
