IPL franchises make forays into South Africa, Australia and England:

Having created a firm grip on world cricket the highly successful IPL franchise conglomerate – comprising a bunch of professional businesspeople -

with an eye on growth and smartly aligning their business to the now widely talked about and hugely respected Indian economy, strode forward and grabbed all the six franchises in the soon-to-be-launched T20 league in South Africa. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), owners of Mumbai Indians, has been awarded the Cape Town franchise while Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd., Chennai Super Kings’ parent company, has acquired the

Johannesburg franchise.

The other owners are

• Lucknow Super Giants’ RPSG Sports PVt. Ltd. (Durban),

• Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Sun TV Network (Gqeberha, formerly Port Elizabeth)

• Rajasthan Royals’ Royals Sports Group (Paarl) and

• Delhi Capitals’ co-owners JSW Sports (Pretoria).

Nita Ambani, RIL director, was delighted with the new acquisition. “We are excited to take the Mumbai Indians’ brand of fearless and entertaining cricket to South Africa, a nation that loves cricket as much as we do in India! South Africa has a strong sporting ecosystem, and we look forward to exploring the power and potential of this collaboration,” Mrs. Ambani said in a statement.

“As we grow MI’s global cricketing footprint, we remain committed to spreading joy and cheer through sport!”

Entering Big Bash and The Hundred is a matter of time!

BCCI has announced the introduction of Women’s IPL from the coming season. It will place our girls on a bashfully dominant platform – that they are playing really well is everybody to see – Harmanpreet Kaur and her brand of aggressive cricket has won the Asia Cup, played enterprising cricket in England and have been performing excellently at the Big Bash!