Fans deserve a better deal from sports administrators

The aftermath of the Bengaluru stampede made for an interesting case study. The police, the politicians, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the franchise were all in a race to shirk responsibility and put the blame on someone else.

- Ashish Magotra

The aftermath of the Bengaluru stampede made for an interesting case study. The police, the politicians, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the franchise were all in a race to shirk responsibility and put the blame on someone else. "The fans were uncontrollable," said deputy chief minister of Karnataka DK Shivakumar. BCCI quickly issued a statement saying that they had no role in the event. The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) said "the unfortunate incident" only came to light through media reports. The police, meanwhile, said they had not expected so many people to turn up and only deployed 1,000 personnel to manage the lakhs who turned up.

While the compensation and financial support announced will help, it isn't the long-term solution India needs.

The incident in Bengaluru was tragic, but the reality is that almost every well-attended Indian sporting event could so easily turn into a stampede. People (even if they are senior citizens) are made to walk long distances to the stadium because the parking lots are kilometers away, then they stand in line for hours and finally, enter through bottlenecks with police and private security ever-ready to use the omnipresent lathis.