Ever since the news of Hardik Pandya taking over the reins of captaincy from Rohit Sharma at Mumbai Indians has broken out, it has not gone down well with many cricket enthusiasts and fans alike. (Full Coverage | More Cricket News)
During an Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match between Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad, an altercation resulted to a death of a cricket fan in Maharashtra's Kolhapur.
The incident was reported on Wednesday night, March 27, and the police received information on Saturday, March 30. The deceased name has been identified as Bandopant Tibile (63), a resident of Hanmantwadi. The accused, Balwant Zhanjage (50) and Sagar Zhanjage (35), have been put behind bars by the Karveer Police.
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“They were watching a match. The argument broke out because of an incident in a match. The biggest lesson is to not get too involved emotionally in cricket. When will we treat sport as sport?”, deceased Tibile's son Vijay was quoted in The Indian Express.
Ravi Jadhav, the police patil, said to The Express, “Cricket has always been popular but in the last few years, IPL madness has reached unimaginable levels. People identify themselves as Mumbai Indians or Chennai diehards. People put it as their status messages. Cricket is one part but the IPL khunnas (hatred) is a new thing.”
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As per the police, the accused were watching SRH vs MI IPL game and were left disappointed as SRH batters scored big in the game.
Despite being confident that MI would chase down the 276-run target, the group was joined by Tibile. He was the fan of Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Post the wicket of Rohit Sharma, Tibile raised doubts whether MI would chase down the huge target and praised CSK.
This did not go down well with the men, and beat up Tibile with wooden sticks. Immediately locals intervened and was taken to hospital later. However, it was of no help as he passed away on March 31.
Zhanjage and his nephew have been booked under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
