Narendra Modi Stadium Stampede: Ahead of the IPL 2023 Qualifier 2 and Final, chaos unfolded at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday when a large crowd of cricket fans gathered to collect tickets for the IPL 2023 final match, resulting in a stampede-like situation. Follow IPL 2023 Live Updates with InsideSport.IN.
Despite booking tickets online for the IPL 2023 final through Paytm Insider, fans need to collect physical tickets at Box Office. This resulted in the gathering of a massive crowd outside the Stadium and a commotion broke out in the queues, leading to a push and shoving among the fans.
The Ahmedabad Police had to intervene to keep the situation under control. While it was earlier reported that Police did a ‘baton charge’ to split the crowd, a fan, who was present outside the stadium, refuted the reports.
“There was no stampede. But it was an utter mismanagement. There were 5-6 ticket counters. But they opened only 1 today. It was horrible in that 40-degree heat. When they finally started giving out tickets, expectedly, there was a huge queue of thousands of people. So, there were a lot of pushes and 2-3 guys fell. Don’t think anyone was severely injured. But it could have turned out bad”, Rajeev Chauhan, who went to collect tickets for IPL 2023 Final, told InsideSport from Ahmedabad.
Following the debacle, a top BCCI official talked to InsideSport and assured that the board is in talks with the ticketing partner to see if they can make e-tickets valid.
“Don’t know exactly what happened. We are keeping a tab on the situation. We are in touch with the GCA for assistance. We are in talks with the ticketing partner to see if e-ticket can be valid,” BCCI official to InsideSport.
Stampede-like situation outside Stadium not first time in India
However, this is not the first time a stampede-like situation occurred in India while collecting match tickets. A more serious incident took place outside Gymkhana Stadium in Hyderabad last year when thousands of cricket fans flocked in to buy tickets for a T20I match between India and Australia. This led to a stampede and several fans sustained serious injuries.
Last month, a fan, who watched the game at the Narendra Modi Stadium, had expressed his frustration due to the small exits of the Stadium and warned the authorities that this could lead to a stampede in the future.
Apart from the IPL final, the Narendra Modi Stadium will also host the Qualifier 2 match between Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians on May 26.
Notably, CSK will play the IPL 2023 final against the winner of Qualifier 2 on May 28.
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