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Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) victory celebrations turned into a nightmare on June 4 as stampede outside M.Chinnaswamy Stadium killed 11 and left many injured. Many including Madan Lal and Syed Kirmani questioned the management for the unfortunate incident. Players have been facing flak too for celebrating while it was chaos outside the ground. But, Atul Wassan has defended Virat Kohli and teammates. He also talked about RCB fandom and how the franchise got so much hype because of him.
"Yeah, so very sad, you know, it's tragic what I heard, and it just transpired in front of my eyes because since last night after the match, I've been doing shows, and I saw that relief on Virat's face and the kind of traction. I could see that, and he had made it clear in 2016 when he lost it that it was one of his worst moments. So I think the fans got into this. They bought into this story of Virat that it was such a big thing, and when Virat got it eventually with Anushka and all, that I think is when fans went crazy," Wassan told ANI.
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"But what transpired later on in the morning with the motorcade and the kind of celebrations that over the time triggered over the over euphoria, which I could not believe. I was watching it and I was watching it as a public experiment, as a social experiment that how can a local franchise get so much hype. I was trying to analyse it because Virat has been with them for 18 years. He probably has got everything under the Sun, but he probably felt that because of his skin in the game – with this franchise, he thought that maybe he had to deliver it. So I think it's just the Virat factor, the connect with Virat that the fans have got worldwide."
Wassan slammed the RCB franchise and the state government for the stampede-like situation outside the stadium. He feels RCB players would have immediately walked out had they been aware about the situation outside the ground.
"Virat was paying it back to the fans. I cannot believe in a million years that Virat – I have known him as a kid, as a person – knew that people are dying outside, and the felicitation was going inside. The politicians, I can believe, because they are ruthless, thick-skinned. They are mercenaries and as is the corporate, which is the RCB franchise. They don't care because they have to show the balance sheets. They have to show revenue. They would have known so it was a lack of communication. By the time the players would have gotten to know, they didn't have any say in it. If they did, they would have immediately walked out," the former pacer told ANI.
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