Bengaluru, Mar 28 (PTI) After several months of uncertainty and deliberations, cricket returned to M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday through the IPL season-opener between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Sunrisers Hyderabad, with the venue preparations ticking several boxes.

The June 4, 2025, stampede that killed 11 fans as part of RCB’s victory celebrations here had jeopardised Chinnaswamy’s chances of hosting cricket matches.

But the newly-elected KSCA regime under Venkatesh Prasad burned midnight oil, holding one parley after another with various state government departments to get the nod to host matches here.

There were two mock drills on March 23 to prepare all concerned for the IPL match, but even then there would have been some trepidation because dealing with a real-match situation is a different beast altogether.

But right from managing the crowd movement at the adjacent Cubbon Road and Queens Road to ensuring a more disciplined entry to the stadium, the evening had a rather uneventful beginning.

“We have deployed adequate force to manage the crowd outside the stadium to stop people from gathering near the gates.

The stadium gates opening four hours before the match too has made our job a bit more easy,” a top police official informed.

True to his words, the cops manning the roads did not allow anyone to stand on the road for more than a couple of minutes, urging them to move to their respective gates.

Unlike in the past, there were more well-defined parking spaces away from the stadium, such as Garuda Mall and Freedom Park from where fans can either walk to the stadium or take the drop.

The decision by RCB to sell around 80 per cent of tickets online eased the rush near gates on the match day, a stark contrast from previous years when last-minute ticket hunters used to cram the avenues leading to the stadium.

Even the jersey-sellers and temporary tattoo makers who used to roam around freely were very limited in numbers and were restricted to specific areas of the roads.

The Royal Challengers management had opened the ticket sales on March 24, 4 pm, and all of them were sold out in about five minutes.

Around 29000 tickets were sold to the public as against the total capacity of 35000.

In fact, there were more turnstiles and gates for fans to enter the stadium than in previous years, and the width of the existing gates were too increased to 9 meter to make the entry an easier process.

But a rather unfamiliar order was seen and felt everywhere near the Chinnaswamy Stadium, a sharp deviation from the past.

However, the unbridled excitement, electrifying on-field action and the unstinted support for the RCB players didn’t change.

It was evident in the uproarious welcome they gave to Virat Kohli when he entered the ground for pre-match routines. The RCB players wore No.

11 jersey during the warm-up drills, commemorating the 11 departed souls during the tragic stampede.

The teams, officials and players observed a minute of silence in memory of them and the scroll bands around the stadium flashed — ‘Forever in our hearts’ and the gesture gave a solemn touch to the evening.

But cricket is certainly back in Chinnaswamy and the magic has not eroded one bit. PTI

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)