Its Royal Challengers Bengaluru won their first IPL trophy in the year 2025. These words echoed in my brain like the best words I have heard in my 23 years of life. All these years we just hoped, believed, prayed, and stayed loyal to the franchise even though it didn’t have a single cup in all these years. Amidst of all the trolls and memes circulating around the social media, this win gave a perfect reply to all the haters. Celebrations touched the sky in the Bangalore and “EE SALA CUP NAMDU” echoed in the streets of Bengaluru. But the happiness is just short lived with 11 lives lost and dozens were injured in the very next day. The stampede in the Bengaluru gave a tight slap to the people that even in the middle of triumph we should forget that the lives are more valuable than everything

As an RCB fan this is the win we all dreamed off since the IPL started in the year 2008 with 8 IPL franchises. These 18 years are filled with highs, lows, heartbreaks and historic moments. Despite having star-studded squads. This team failed to achieve its first IPL trophy but 2025 became our year. It all started with the first match against KKR( Kolkata Knight Risers) on April 8,2008. In which RCB lost. In the years 2008,2011,2016 team stood as a runner up but couldn’t defend their spot as the finalist.

In all these years the team saw many great players come and go but there is one person who gave all his heart and soul to the franchise and stayed loyal to the same team after being trolled for everything he did for 18 years. Some people loved him from the bottom of the heart and some people hated him for never getting the single trophy even after being the best cricketer, the world could ever see.

“Virat Kohli” – the face of the franchise. He stayed loyal and devoted to the same team no matter the result of the game. In return he earned the loyal fanbase in the world. Kohli led RCB over a decade from the year 2011-21. Before stepping down as a captain. He scored 973 runs – highest individual runs by a player in the IPL history which justifies his name “The run machine”. Despite giving his best, he still lost final to Sun risers Hyderabad in the year 2016. But the hunger never stopped he continued to give his best in the next seasons with more than 500+ runs in the consecutive seasons. He may not have trophy then but he had a most loyal fans that cherished him, loved him, inspired by him, treated him as their idol.

On June 3, 2025. Ahmedabad stadium filled with red jerseys backing up RCB in their finals. Fans witnessed raw emotions of Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and AB de Villeirs. When they finally kissed the trophy after 18 years in the Ahmedabad stadium and mentioned to AB de Villiers as this trophy is as much as yours than mine shows how much this player had contributed to this franchise. Chris Gayle came all the way to India for the IPL finals gave fans extra cherry feels. Even though their playing time has been ended ABD’s and Gayle’s heart stayed with RCB constantly supporting the franchise all these years. They are equally worshipped as Kohli in this franchise by the fans. Their contributions to the team in the year 2016 made fans go awe in every match they played. They can single handedly win the matches with their potential. And now Rajat Patidar -the captain was added to the list.

He was taken as a replacement by the RCB in 2021 and appointed as a captain in the 2025 shows how much he owned and contributed to the team. The fact that he made his debut in the year 2025 as a captain and the first IPL trophy in the same year itself proves that he is next face of the RCB. His cool and calm presence as a potential captain in the field made a great impact among the players to play the game with passion and win the matches. Initial days he was questioned by many people who doubted his potential and in the end, he gave his answer by winning first IPL trophy for the franchise. And this trophy is a team effort of all the players that played extraordinary knocks, bowling spells and team management and all the Coaches. The players love for the franchise and fans peaked when they said it is for the fans who stayed despite all the heartbreaks we have given them. They cried with us when we lost the matches so they deserve this happiness with us. Entire bengaluru fans were just felt alive to hear those words from their captain. But all this excitement got vanished with in a day. Victory overshadowed by grief. Suddenly every heart that prayed for trophy started praying for the lives that lost at the stampede outside the chinnaswamy stadium in bengaluru. More than dozen were injured and 11 lives lost in the stampede.

people gathered at the stadium just to get a glimpse of players that brought them the trophy they wanted to congratulate them and show them how much they wanted that trophy to be home. But as the reward for the love they lost their lives.

Passion for the cricket and the players should always unite us but it costed the 11 lives. Where is our society going? What is the government doing? Why is no one concerned about the security of the people? Why the people are so irresponsible about the lives? Where did it went wrong? Whose fault it is? Is it the government? Is it the management?

Suddenly everything shattered. Most of the teenagers and young people lost their lives in the name of love towards a cricket. There is no one that can answer the families who lost their loved ones. With over 2 lakh people gathered but the stadium could only hold 35000 people. In addition, RCB social post about free passes led to lot of crowd which led to the tragic stampede.

What could be the most possible reasons?

  1. Lack of crowd control: Management know there would be a large crowd gathering is gonna happen and still they are just not enough people to control the crowd.
  2. Conflicting permissions: As the government didn’t allow them for a open parade all the people never had a chance so they just stood at the stadium just to have a glimpse.
  3. Security lapses: there is no coordination between management and police in order to control and take necessary actions among the people.

The government can provide compensation of 10 lakhs but can they bring back the lives? Can they fulfil their spot in their lives? This is not the first time that this kind of things happen in India. We have seen it before in the Pushpa 2 release case as well. But still we remained same and continued to lose lives and feel regret about it later?

Can we do anything about this?

yes, we can. If we follow the guildelines, if we are bound to rules and regulations, there can be a passion towards something like cricket or cinema but it should not cost lives. The youth should be more careful about this kind of things. This should not have happened. We made the trophy home after 18 years but we should also think of people that never made it home that night.

This is our greatest lesson. let us be careful from the next time. Let us pledge no celebration, I repeat no celebration should end with loss. Let us pray for the people that lost their lives find their peace. From the next time let us remember them in the action. let us demand the safety measures and be mindful in the crowds. For those we lost, for those who mourn, and for the future we must protect. let’s make sure this never happens again.