Former India cricketer has asked Virat Kohli and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) players whether they were aware of the fact that people were doing outside the the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, while they were celebrating their first IPL trophy inside the venue.
At least 11 people are dead and more than 30 injured after a stampede on Wednesday as crowds tried to enter the cricket stadium.
“I cannot believe in a million years that Virat Kohli knew that people were dying outside, and the felicitation was going inside," Wassan was quoted by ANI.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!“The politicians, I can believe, because they’re ruthless, thick-skinned and so is the corporate, which is the RCB franchise. The franchisees don’t care because they have to show the balance sheets, and they have to show revenue. They would have known maybe. It was a lack of communication."
“By the time Virat and the players would have got to know, they didn’t have any say in it. If Virat had known, he would have immediately walked out. I cannot believe that Virat knew and this has happened. But very sad, very tragic," he added.
Cricket fans had come out to celebrate Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s first Indian Premier League title win on Tuesday. The team had given away free passes to fans for the event through its website, and urged them to follow guidelines set by police and authorities.
The team in a statement said it was “deeply anguished.”
Karnataka state’s Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who only uses one name, said the crowd tried to break one of the stadium’s gates and enter to take part in celebrations.
Who's that IPL player?“At a time of celebration, this unfortunate event should not have happened. We are saddened by this,” he told reporters.
"No one expected this crowd,” he said.
DK Shivakumar, the deputy chief minister of Karnataka state, told reporters that “the crowd was very uncontrollable."
The Board of Control for Cricket in India, which organizes the IPL, in a statement called the incident “unfortunate.”
“This is a negative side of popularity. People are crazy for their cricketers. The organizers should have planned it better,” BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia said.
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