MUMBAI: India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir on Thursday questioned the necessity of holding road shows to celebrate sporting triumphs after a stampede during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s IPL victory celebrations led to the death of 11 fans near the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Gambhir, who has been part of two IPL title-winning celebrations in Kolkata and India’s 2007 T20 World Cup-winning campaign, urged everyone to be “responsible citizens” and not conduct functions when people are not ready for it.

When asked about the Bengaluru tragedy on Wednesday, the former BJP MP gave a sharp reply.

“Obviously that is a very important question and I need to answer that. I was never a believer that we need to have road shows. I had the same statement to make even after winning (the T20 World Cup) in 2007 that we should not have road shows,” Gambhir told mediapersons during a pre-departure press conference for the England tour.

Gambhir as a captain of Kolkata Knight Riders had attended two felicitation functions organised by the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government at the Eden Gardens in 2012 and 2014 but there were no road shows.

For Gambhir, lives are paramount and he urged everyone to be careful in near future.

“I think lives of people are far more important and I will continue to say that. In future we can be little bit aware of not keeping these kind of road shows. We can probably have it in a closed door or something like in a stadium.