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Mukesh Ambai with Mumbai Indians players
India's richest person, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Group is set to acquire 60 percent stakes in Walt Disney's India business. Notably, Reliance Group owns Jio Cinema, the online streaming rights holders of the IPL and India's home games. Apart from this, their TV channel, Sports 18, which comes under Viacom 18 also holds the rights to India's home games.
On the other hand, Disney + Hotstar (both companies merged a few years back in India), holds the rights to Australia's home games and the Apex Council's events. Also, Star Sports TV has been the rights holder to Apex Council events till 2031 and continues to be the rights holder to IPL. However, in the last couple of years, Hotstar has been losing its subscribers massively after losing the IPL rights.
Jio Cinema's pocket-friendly plans have also created stiff problems not just for Hotstar but also for the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. As per reports on Bloomberg, Walt Disney and Reliance Group will merge at a whopping valuation of INR 33,000 crore.
Mukesh Ambani owns Mumbai Indians franchises
Meanwhile, Mukesh Ambani and his family run the five-time Men's IPL winners, Mumbai Indians, and the holders of the Women's Premier League. Apart from this, in the last year or so, the franchise has expanded itself in countries such as South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America. They own MI Cape Town (SA20), winners of ILT20 (MI Emirates), and winners of Major League Cricket (MI New York)
MI Cape Town is yet to qualify for the playoffs in the two seasons of the SA20 in 2023 and 2024. Talking about their parent franchise, they qualified for the playoffs only once in the last three seasons (2021, 2022, and 2023).
Mumbai Indians squad for IPL 2024
Retained Players: Akash Madhwal, Arjun Tendulkar, Hardik Pandya, Dewald Brevis, Ishan Kishan, Jason Behrendorff, Jasprit Bumrah, Kumar Kartikeya Singh, N. Tilak Varma, Nehal Wadhera, Piyush Chawla, Rohit Sharma, Romario Shepherd (T), Shams Mulani, Surya Kumar Yadav, Tim David, Vishnu Vinod
Signed during the auction: Gerald Coetzee, Nuvan Thushara, Dilshan Madushanka, Anshul Kamboj, Naman Dhir, Shreyas Gopal, Mohammad Nabi, Shivalik Sharma