Chinnaswamy Stadium set to host its first tournament since June 4 stampede

The M Chinnaswamy Stadium will host cricket matches for the first time since a stampede outside its premises on June 4 claimed 11 lives during Royal Challengers Bengaluru's IPL victory celebrations.

The venue is one of the hosts for Karnataka State Cricket Association's (KSCA) K Thimmappiah Memorial Trophy, a red-ball multi-day pre-season tournament comprising 16 teams. The Chinnaswamy Stadium will host six matches in the competition, including one semi-final and the final from September 26. However, fans will not be allowed in the stadium.

Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Vijay Shankar, Shashank Singh are among the top Indian stars in participation. The tournament features teams from Mumbai, Vidarbha, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal, Chhattisgarh among others.

Chinnaswamy's return to the cricket calendar also coincides with RCB having broken their social media silence over the tragic stampede. Last week, the franchise communicated to have extended a sum of INR 25 lakh to the families of those who died, while also committing long-term action towards better crowd safety and management.

The venue has been at the centre of an ongoing tussle between the KSCA, Karnataka government and the state police - all of whom have been under investigation, along with the franchise, by a one-man tribunal following the June 4 incident.

Additionally, KSCA have also run into issues with the local regulatory bodies, including the electricity supply department (BESCOM) that has cut-off power to the venue due to non-compliance of fire safety regulations. An NOC hadn't yet been received as of Wednesday (September 3). The venue uses generators and solar power for its needs.

As a result, the KSCA was denied permission by the police to host the Women's World Cup, with Chinnaswamy losing out on five possible games, including the tournament opener, a semi-final and the final on November 2.

The Maharaja Trophy, the state's franchise-based T20 competition, had to also be moved out of Bengaluru for the same reason, after the police rejected KSCA's proposal to stage the tournament behind closed doors. The tournament was eventually staged in Mysore under a similar closed-door arrangement.

Late last month, a committee tasked by the state government to investigate the stampede deemed the Chinnaswamy "unsafe" for large-scale events. The commission "strongly recommended" that large-scale events be relocated to venues that were "better suited" to handle significant crowds.

Subsequently, Karnataka's deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar unveiled the government's grand plans of building a cricket stadium capable of housing 60,000 fans inside a massive 75-acre sports complex in the city's industrial suburbs.