Legendary Indian wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani, a hero of India’s 1983 World Cup victory, termed the death of 11 Royal Challengers Bengaluru fans during the victory celebrations in Bengaluru as a “deadly welcome” for the newly crowned IPL champions and questioned the change in nature of fandom from his playing days. The RCB management and the Karnataka government organised a victory celebration at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, but the local authorities didn’t envisage the massive turnout which led to a stampede, killing 11 people.

“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, who played 88 Tests for India, felt if the RCB team was to be felicitated, it could have been done in a proper manner with enough time for proper arrangements. “On that count I suppose if RCB waited for 17 (18) years to become champions and organizers, whosoever it may be could have waited for a while for things to settle down and then organize a show to felicitate these great heroes of RCB.”

He also questioned whether the same fans, who are crazy about RCB, would turn up if Karnataka won the Ranji Trophy. He feels that nature of fandom have become crazier.

“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.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)