‘I was never a believer in roadshows…’: Gautam Gambhir on Bengaluru stampede

MUMBAI: Ahead of leaving for the England tour, the Indian Cricket Team head coach Gautam Gambhir on Thursday expressed his condolences to families who lost their members in the stampede near the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, and said that he “was never a believer in roadshows.”

The incident occurred when thousands of fans gathered to catch a glimpse of their favourite players ahead of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) IPL victory celebrations on Wednesday.

“I was never a believer in roadshows. I had the same statement to make even after winning in 2007; we should never have roadshows. I think the lives of people are far more important than this, and I will continue to say that. Maybe in the future we should try not to hold roadshows, instead we can do it in the stadium. It’s very tragic what happened yesterday, and my heart goes out to the families of those who lost their lives,” Gambhir said during India’s pre-departure press conference on Thursday.

“All I can say is, we need to be responsible. Every life matters. If we are not ready to hold a road show, we should not do that. You cannot at any point of time lose 11 people,” he added.

Eleven people were killed and dozens injured in a stampede outside Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy stadium as a huge crowd of nearly 3 lakh people had gathered to witness the victory celebration of RCB for winning the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Wednesday. The Karnataka Police have also filed an FIR against the Karnataka Cricket Board Administrative Committee, RCB, among others, in connection with the stampede incident.

India tour of England will take place from June to August 2025, with matches to be played at Headingley (Leeds), Edgbaston (Birmingham), Lord’s (London), Old Trafford (Manchester), and The Oval (London).

This will be India’s first bilateral series since both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announced their retirement from Test cricket earlier this month.

India’s Test squad for England series: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav. (ANI)