Unfortunate and very sad: Dravid on Bengaluru stampede-OxBig News Network

Former India coach and captain Rahul Dravid on Tuesday expressed deep anguish over the death of 11 persons in a stampede during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s IPL victory celebrations, terming the incident as ‘unfortunate’ and ‘sad’.

Tragedy struck last Wednesday when nearly 2.5 lakh fans gathered in and around the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars, resulting in a stampede that claimed 11 lives and left 56 injured.

“Yeah, very disappointing. Obviously, very sad. Thoughts go out to people,” he said.

Dravid, who is currently associated with IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals as a coach, said the incident was particularly painful given the city’s deep sporting culture.

“This is a really sports-passionate city. I come from here. People love their sport, not only cricket. People love sport in the city and they’ve really followed all the sporting teams here, whether it’s been our football team or it’s been our kabaddi team.

“And of course, the RCB is a really well-followed team. So really sad, very unfortunate what happened. And our thoughts go out to everyone who unfortunately was injured and some of them who lost their lives.”

In the aftermath of the tragedy, A Shankar and E S Jairam resigned from their respective position of secretary and treasurer of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), taking ‘moral responsibility’ for the incident.

Meanwhile, Nikhil Sosale, marketing head of Royal Challengers Bengaluru, was arrested on June 6.