BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia has spoken about the stampede during the RCB victory parade around Bengaluru’s Chainnaswamy stadium that led to the death of 11 people. Saikia while stating that it was ‘private affair’ said that BCCI is resonsible for cricket in India and cannot be a silent spectator.
Speaking to Cricbuzz, Saikia said, “At some stage BCCI will have to do something. We cannot be a silent spectator,”
“It was a private affair of RCB but we at the BCCI are responsible for cricket in India and we will try to ensure such incidents do not recur in future,” the BCCI Secretary added.
The report states that BCCI intends to put a system of deterrence in place to prevent such incidents during future IPL victory celebratons. However, no specific measures have yet been decided by the board and BCCI will reportedly take up the matter in the future.
Gautam Gambhir on Bengaluru stampede:
The statement by Saikia comes shortly after India head coach Gautam Gambhir firmly spoke out against conducting victory rallies. Speaking about the celebrations, Gambhir said, “I think the lives of people are far more important and I will continue to say. We can be a little bit careful of not holding these kinds of roadshows and can probably have them closed doors or something like this in a stadium.
“When I used to play, I didn’t believe much in roadshows. I don’t believe in them today and I don’t believe in them in the future. Winning is important, celebrations are important, but more important than that is the life of any person. So if we are not prepared, or if we cannot handle the crowd in that way, then might as well these roadshows should not take place.” the India head coach added.
In a dramatic turn of events in the stampede case, the Bengaluru police arrested Nikhil Sosale, the Head of Marketing and Revenue for RCB, along with Kiran Kumar and Sunil Mathew, employees of DNA Entertainment Network, on Friday.