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India's 1983 World Cup-winning wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani labelled the death of 11 Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) fans in stampede during franchise's Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 victory in Benglauru as "deadly welcome". Kirmani slammed the organisers for holding the felicitation ceremony in a hurry and noted that the fandom has gone to a different level in the last few decades.
"My condolences to bereaved families. This was a deadly welcome to IPL champions. In our times, there was no such media hype and there was no TV and there was no such thing which could lead to such things," Kirmani told 'India Today'.
Kirmani slammed the oraganisers responsible for the incident. He feels that the celebrations could've waited for a while before holding the event.
"On that count I suppose if RCB waited for 17 (18) years to become champions and organisers whosoever it may be could have waited for a while for things to settle down and then organise a show to felicitate these great heroes of RCB," the legendary wicketkeeper said.
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Kirmani fails to understand how crazy fans have become in modern era for IPL franchises. He wonders whether they would turn up in such large numbers if Karnataka won the Ranji Trophy.
"The fans of our times were not as crazy as fans of today and especially in the IPL, the crazy fans are unimaginable particularly as you could see lakhs and lakhs were around just to get a glimpse of these great heroes," he opined.
RCB and Kohli's long wait under Patidar's leadership
RCB on June 3 won their maiden IPL with a six-run win over Shreyas Iyer's Punjab Kings (PBKS). It ended the long wait for Kohli who has been playing for the franchise since the inaugural edition when he was a teenager. RCB got over the line in their fourth attempt in the final. Rajat Patidar also joined the elite list of captains who have won the IPL in their debut as skipper.
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