On Wednesday (June 4), IPL 2025 champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru were meant to make a victorious return to Bengaluru – what followed was anything but. Wisden.com's Aadya Sharma and Rahul Iyer, present at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, detail the confusion and mayhem that resulted in 11 confirmed casualties.
Let's start with the chronology of events.
RCB's victory celebration arranged in less than 12 hours
In the early hours of Wednesday (June 4), the media was informally told about a trophy show to be held that evening. At 7am, the RCB posted the same on their social media for the public. Closer to 11am, a clearer itinerary emerged, mentioning a visit to the government officials and a victory parade.
The open-bus victory parade was supposed to lead into the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, a 1.5km stretch, where a celebratory event was to follow.
Just past 1pm, a city traffic advisory was issued, claiming there will be no victory parade, in contradiction to what the franchise had announced. The same was reported by multiple news outlets, including PTI, which quoted the home minister saying that “there will not be a procession in an open vehicle, with the state association saying no to it considering security”.
At 2:44pm, the DCP Traffic West (and later Bengaluru City Police) tweeted that the felicitation ceremony would be held at the stadium, with entry “permitted only to those with valid tickets and passes”. No one knew what those passes meant. Traffic on five roads was restricted, all of which ran along the stadium.
At 3:14pm, the franchise announced that the victory parade was on, followed by the event inside the stadium, for which free passes with limited entry could be booked from their website. This, notably, was the first mention from the franchise, of any regulated entry.
By then, fans had already made their way to the stadium, thronging its corners for the perfect vantage point. There seemed to be no clear plan on how to control the influx of spectators. It was an open invite to the 14 million residents of Bengaluru to try and enter a 35,000-capacity stadium.
It was a recipe for disaster, compounded by the maniacal thirst of fans, rushing to wing their way through the celebration.
Bengaluru's celebratory mood hits organisational hurdles
The metro [underground] ride to the stadium itself was a reflection of things to follow. Ahead of the event, it had been informed that no parking space was available, and everyone was urged to avail public transport. At 4:30pm, as we entered the metro towards the stadiums, the carriages were already filling to capacity. Closer to the stadium, they were filled beyond their scope. Those at the doors prevented anyone else from getting in.
Inside, the hysteria grew. Jostling for space to keep their limbs intact, fans kept their spirits high by chanting slogans, mostly around RCB and Virat Kohli, and some a jab at other teams (“Thala for a reason, CSK out of season”). As the metro hurtled along, the driver intentionally skipped the MG Road station, the preceding stop to Cubbon Park (closest to the stadium). There was a big cheer inside the bogey.
Fans poured out of the metro as it pulled into Cubbon Park, and the entire station was in a celebratory mood. It seemed that anyone there was headed to the Chinnaswamy – there were healthy doses of turnstile-hoppers and overwhelmed metro station employees at the exit gates.
Outside, things were set to get worse.
As we got out, pushed along by the massive volume – up the stairs and into the foyer – the exit closest to the stadium’s main gate had been barricaded off. A prudent move, considering how it opens up to Queens Road, running along to the main gate. By now, we could imagine the madness outside. There was a slight bit of regret as we exited the station, onto the other main road.
Entry attempt No.1: Main gate, Queens Road
Firstly, there was no real signage to direct the crowd spilling out. As soon as we exited, we pursued one direction in the hopes of reaching our designated gate. However, as we turned on Queens Road, the situation became clear: there was no way to push past the already packed pavements, with fans spilling over into incoming traffic. We tried pushing our way through, but it was a massive challenge, and before we completely slid into the quicksand, we turned around in search of another way in.
On the side, fans were scaling past the metro station fence to cross to the other side, adding to the existing mayhem. Again, there was no real plan: everyone was blazing their way through whatever came in the way.
The stadium entrances along Church Road were not as crowded as Queens Road, but there was a glimpse of what would unfold later in the day. One of the gates was opened briefly, and a mad rush for the entrance ensued.
Entry attempt No.2: Link Road (via Church Road)
We then tried to take the long way around the stadium, reaching Link Road, at the opposite side of the stadium from Queens Road. On the approach, there was at least one person being helped away from the entrance by two others. At the barricades, the police also stopped one fan from attempting to drive a motorbike onto Link Road.
Having survived the crowd in the metro and around the stadium by this point, the concentration of people at those entrances did not seem new to us – it was only after reviewing our video footage later on, that the scale of it truly hit.
In any case, we knew wading into the crowd would be unwise, since there would almost certainly be no way to return if we wanted to. A few others thought the same, but resorted to scaling the stadium wall. At any given point, there were about 10 to 12 attempting to get in that way, seemingly with no plan of action on what to do once inside.
Entry attempt No.3: Link Road (via MG Road)
Uneasy but undeterred by this point, we began to take the even longer way around, via St Mark’s Road and MG Road. On the way, we were informed by the RCB communications team that they were attempting to sort out entry for the media. At least two ambulances passed us on MG Road.
This brought us to the other side of the Link Road, where the crowd was considerably smaller and the approach to the members’ gate (Gate 10) was quite smooth. Around 40 to 50 people crowded around it, flashing KSCA club membership cards, or passes for the event.
The closest we got to entering the ground was about ten feet away from Gate 10. Security allowed people to enter in a trickle, but every time a gate was opened to let two or three in at a time, there was a rush for the opening.
On the other side of the gate, but less than a cricket pitch’s length away, we could only communicate with our point of contact from the organisation team by phone. He requested us to stay put for ten minutes, before which he could sort out some form of entry.
Read more: RCB victory parade, live updates: Multiple casualties reported after stampede-like situation
But it was not long before the crowd started to build at Gate 10 as well. Caught between a couple of barricades and the population rapidly increasing there, we decided to pull out before reaching a point of no return.
At this point, the first reports of casualties closer to the main gate of the stadium began to filter through, along with journalists raising the concern that they had been given conflicting information on where to enter the stadium. If the media alone had had some wires crossed, the situation may not have escalated, but crucially there was little, if any, information in the public domain regarding plans for stadium entry.
All the while, the ceremony inside the stadium carried on, along with its live stream. IPL chair Arun Dhumal said later, “Officials inside weren't aware about what happened outside. They assured me they will wrap it up inside. It is very sad and tragic. Heartfelt condolences ... We are not even aware whether someone has planned this event – how come such a huge crowd came to the stadium?
“We spoke to the management when we got to know about the situation and they assured that they will finish the ceremony quickly. This is definitely sad and tragic. RCB officials assured me that they will wind up the celebrations now.”
The aftermath
Little summed up the confusion of the day better than what unfolded in the evening. The state’s opposition party, the BJP, accused the Indian National Congress government of criminal negligence – before Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar responded with, “RCB wanted an open-bus parade, but CM and I, citing law & order and player safety, didn’t permit it.”
Barely half an hour after his words, photos emerged of Shivakumar at the Chinnaswamy, flanked by RCB skipper Rajat Patidar and coach Andy Flower, lifting the IPL trophy – and wearing a rather world-weary expression. This came after he had already received the team as their flight touched down in Bengaluru, and felicitated them at the Vidhana Soudha (Karnataka’s Legislative Assembly).
At 8:30pm, before we had even found our way back home, the Karnataka State Cricket Association had announced a compensation of INR 5 lakh (GBP 4,297) to the families of the deceased. At 9pm, the Karnataka government followed with their own compensation of INR 10 lakh to the families.
A statement of condolence came from RCB at 10pm, expressing the franchise’s anguish at “unfortunate incidents that have come to light through media reports regarding public gatherings all over Bengaluru.”
At 11pm, the Karnataka government released an official list of the deceased – five men, five women and one unidentified. Seven of these eleven were aged 20 or under, the youngest a 13-year-old girl.
It remains unclear what went on behind the scenes in the planning of this event at such short notice, or how many of the required authorities had been looped in. Less than 24 hours ago – as the final ball was bowled in Ahmedabad at 11:24pm on June 3 – there had been zero indication of any celebration.
Between the personnel and infrastructure at the venue, there appeared to be simply no one equipped to handle the crowd. At whose doorstep the accountability lies is not cut-and-dry. But it is undeniable that the Chinnaswamy stampede was a systemic failure on multiple levels.
All that is left now are the gruesome visuals of the incidents: motionless bodies being resuscitated or carried, fans falling off while attempting to scale walls, dazed and injured being helped out. And the aftermath: slippers strewn out, fallen barricades, broken car windshields, the ring of ambulance sirens, and scores of scarred faces.
The celebration was supposed to be historic. It turned tragic.
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