Reliance Industries Limited, which is helmed by Mukesh Ambani, confirmed its acquisition of a franchise in Cricket South Africa‘s newly formed T20 league.
In the recently concluded auction of the CSA cricket league, the owners of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises have reportedly swept rights to all the six teams of the competition.
Based in Cape Town, the new franchise will take forward the Mumbai Indians brand and comes close on the heels of acquiring the UAE-based International League T-20 team, the company revealed in a statement.
Nita Ambani, Director of Reliance Industries, said, “I’m delighted to welcome our new T20 team to the Reliance family! 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. As we grow MI’s global cricketing footprint, we remain committed to spreading joy and cheer through sport!”
Akash Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Jio, said, “With our South African franchise, we now have three T20 teams across three countries. We look forward to leveraging our expertise and depth of knowledge in the cricket ecosystem & brand Mumbai Indians to help build the team and provide fans with some of the best cricketing experiences.”
The inaugural edition of the tournament is scheduled to take place in January 2023. The featuring six teams will play against each other twice in a round-robin format and the top three teams will qualify for the playoffs. A total of 33 games will be played throughout three to four weeks.