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Vijay Mallya, the former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) owner, made an appearance in one of the latest episodes of the YouTube podcast called Figuring Out with Raj Shamani. Declared a fugitive economic offender in India currently, Vijay Mallya, who was the founder of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is currently living in the United Kingdom, and over there, he talked at length during the podcast about his association with the Indian Premier League (IPL), including how he got the ownership of RCB in 2008.
When the original eight IPL teams were sold nearly 18 years ago, Vijay Mallya won the bid to own RCB for $112 million, which was equivalent to around INR 600–700 Crore. But, in a latest revelation to Raj Shamani on the Figuring Out Podcast, the 69-year-old said that he first wanted to buy the Mumbai franchise, but ended up losing it to Reliance Industries owner Mukesh Ambani by a relatively small amount of money.
I bid for three franchises, and I lost Mumbai by a very small amount of money: Vijay Mallya
He was quoted as saying, as per India.com, “I was very impressed with the pitch that Lalit Modi made to the BCCI committee about this league. He called me one day and said ok, teams are going to be auctioned. Are you going to buy it? So, I bid for three franchises, and I lost Mumbai by a very small amount of money.” As per the reports, Vijay Mallya bid for Mumbai franchise was $111 million, just $0.9 million less than Mukesh Ambani’s $111.9 million bid, and now, Mumbai Indians (MI) are the five-time IPL champions, holding joint-highest number of titles with Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
It is important to note that the Figuring Out Podcast featuring Vijay Mallya has been released just days after his former franchise RCB went on to win their first IPL title by defeating PBKS by six runs in the final earlier this month at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. While there was no indication from Vijay Mallya during the podcast about potentially looking to return to India after a long time, the sudden arrival of him in the limelight could eventually turn into something of a compromise between him and the Indian authorities looking to extradite him from the United Kingdom.
Moreover, RCB are currently running under global brand Diageo instead of United Spirits Limited under Vijay Mallya over a decade ago.
