Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), which owns the Mumbai Indians team of the Indian Premier League (IPL), is set to acquire a franchise in South Africa's upcoming T20 cricket league.
"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 said.
The statement came shortly after Cricket South Africa, the country's nodal cricketing body, announced that all six teams in its upcoming T20 league have been picked up as owners of IPL franchises.
While RIL's Mumbai Indians will acquire the Cape Town-based franchise, Chennai Super Kings owners purchased the Johannesburg-based franchise, news agency Reuters reported.
JSW Steel, which owns IPL's Delhi Capitals team, will take the Pretoria-based franchise, whereas, the owners of Lucknow Super Giants, Sunrisers Hyderabad, and Rajasthan Royals have placed successful bids for the Durban, Gqeberha, and Paarl franchises, respectively.
The tournament's inaugural edition is expected to be held in January 2023, under a round-robin format where each of the six teams will square off against each other twice before proceeding to the play-offs.
"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," RIL director Nita Ambani 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 and brand Mumbai Indians to help build the team and provide fans with some of the best cricketing experiences," added Akash Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Jio, the company's telecom arm.
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