New Delhi: Defending champions Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) announced on Tuesday that all players of the team will wear the No. 11 jersey during pre-match training on all match days of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL).
The decision was made “in memory of the 11 fans” who were involved in a stampede while celebrating the team’s first title win at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on June 4 last year.
RCB CEO Rajesh Menon said: “In memory of the 11 fans we lost on June 4, the players will train wearing the number 11 jersey on the day of the match and during pre-match training time.”
“All players will wear the number 11 jersey; not for the game, but for training.”
The team also plans to mark 11 permanent seats in memory of the fans who died in the stampede.
“Apart from this, they (players) will also wear black armbands on that day. We are also looking at having 11 permanent seats at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. This is for the 11 fans who will always be with us,” he added.
RCB will play their first match of the season against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on March 28, which will be their first of five home games.
RCB will play the remaining two home matches in this IPL at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium in Raipur.
On June 4, after RCB won the IPL trophy for the first time, chaos broke out during the celebrations, leading to a stampede in which fans lost their lives. The team has been widely criticized for its handling of the celebrations, which drew hundreds of thousands of people to the streets without the necessary security clearances.