IPL Team Owners list: All you need to know about them

Owning an IPL team requires huge investment and a big heart. For common cricket lovers, owning an IPL team is a dream, a dream so beautiful that you literally cry and curse when you wake up. But, there are plenty of challenges an owner has to encounter that cricket lovers like us are not privy to.

Owners have to delegate the jobs to a dependable group responsible for managing an entire squad. The owners are also actively involved with the talent scouts and coaching staff before zeroing on players in the auction every year. It is also crucial that the owner trusts his advising committee completely when it comes to investing on unknown players.

The owners also need to keep a positive mindset even when their teams don’t do well. It’s imperative that the players get the backing of their owners all the time. A good team owner always keeps an open mind while taking decisions, which are best in their team’s interest.

Here we look at all the 8 IPL team owners.

Mumbai Indians – Reliance Industries

The franchise is owned by Reliance Industries through its 100% subsidiary IndiaWin Sports. Mumbai Indians has always been one of the most followed teams in the IPL from a fan’s perspective.

Nita Ambani, wife of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, is the face of Mumbai Indians. Always a regular feature in Mumbai Indian's games, she is an avid cricket lover. She is also a philanthropist and a supporter of numerous initiatives. She has contributed immensely to the development of the franchise and her mere presence seems to inspire and boost the morale of her team.

Delhi Capitals - GMR Group and JSW Group

Delhi daredevils

The GMR Group purchased the Delhi franchise in 2008. Mr. G.M Rao owns the infrastructural company GMR Group, headquartered in Banaglore. Their home ground is the Feroz Shah Kotla Ground in Delhi.

Kiran Grandhi, son of G M Rao, has been a regular feature at the team's matches and is usually seen quietly supporting them from the stands.

The group sold have their shares to the JSW group, renaming the franchise to Delhi Capitals. They revamped the entire team, injected young blood and got legends like Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly into the mix.

Kings XI Punjab- Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Mohit Burman, Karan Paul

The Kings XI Punjab is jointly owned by popular Bollywood actress Preity Zinta, Wadia Group‘s Ness Wadia, Dabur’s Mohit Burman and Karan Paul of the Apeejay Surrendra Group.

Preity Zinta however is the face of the team. She is normally seen in every KXIP game vociferously cheering for her players from the stands.

Sunrisers Hyderabad- Kalanithi Maran, Sun TV Network

The Sunrisers Hyderabad is owned by Kalanithi Maran. Maran, a dynamic personality, owns one of the biggest television network in India called Sun TV network.

Sunrisers Hyderabad is currently coached by Trevor Bayliss and is captained by another Aussie, David Warner.

Under their three marquee foreigners, Warner, Bairstow and Williamson, SRH have thrived like none other. After their historic winning campaign, the team regularly punched above their weight, mainly because of the prowess of the above three and Rashid Khan.

Royal Challengers Bangalore- United Spirits Limited

After Vijay Mallya resigned as the owner after he allegedly fled the country with humongous outstanding debts, United Spirits took over the reigns of the Bangalore based franchise. The RCB franchise is a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Spirits Limited (USL), of which Mallya had been chairman and non-executive director, till he resigned from his post.

Sanjeev Churiwala and Vinod Rai, the top bosses of Daigeo India are the current board members of the Royal Challengers Bangalore team.

Currently being coach by Simon Katich, Virat Kohli and co. will look to make some major amends after doing some good business in the auction window.

Kolkata Knight Riders- Shah Rukh Khan and Jay Mehta

The franchise is owned by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan in partnership with actress Juhi Chawla and her spouse Jay Mehta. Khan’s RedChillies Entertainment and Mehta’s Mehta Group are the joint owners. The home of the Knight Riders is Eden Gardens, the mecca of Indian cricket.

The owners have taken some strong decisions in the past and the most notable being revamping the entire side and getting Gambhir to lead. That move paid rich dividends and KKR bore a much-settled look after that. They have also gone on to win the title twice ever since they took those bold steps.

The official slogan of the team is the catchy “Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo”(we will act, fight and win!) and KKR, in general, has an extremely strong brand value.

Chennai Super Kings

IPL Qualifier - Chennai v Delhi

Owned by the India Cements, a company held by the former BCCI president N Srinivasan, CSK ownership fell into a myriad of controversy when the Gurunath Meiyappan was investigated for betting, conspiracy and cheating. Despite CSK disowning Meiyappan stating that he was neither the owner, or the CEO of the franchise, the Chennai based franchise were banned for a period of two years in 2015.

In the same year, reports emerged that Srinivasan, the former owner of the franchise, had given up his 29 percent stake of the India Cements to a cricketers' Trust.

Rajasthan Royals

Rajasthan Royals

For a team led and the coached by Rahul Dravid, it would come as a surprise how many major controversies Rajasthan Royals have been a part of. Currently owned by Amisha Hathiramani (44.2%), Manoj Badale (32.4%), Lachlan Murdoch (11.7%) and the legendary Shane Warne (3%), Royals have had a tumultuous time in legal battles since their inception.

Earlier owned by Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra, the was expelled by the BCCI in 2010 over issues with shareholding patterns.

The then BCCI president Shashank Manohar had stated,

With regards to Rajasthan, the bid was [registered] by a different bidder and the agreement was entered into with a different company," he said. "The shareholding pattern was different. The shares were transferred to different people without the permission of the governing council."

Later in 2013, Royals and then owner Raj Kundra were banned for facilitating spot fixing and betting in the IPL. Three players including former Indian pacer S Sreesanth were ousted after a Lodha Committee enquiry on the matter.