Nita Ambani’s sporting journey through the lens of Mumbai Indians
Reliance Industries and owner Nita Ambani’s tryst with the Indian Premier League dates back more than 16 years when they won the bid to own the Mumbai-based franchise when the Board of Control for Cricket in India initially unveiled the eight-city based T20 league in January 2008. It was Reliance that got bagged Mumbai with the highest bid of $111.9 million, initially for a period of 10 years.
Since then, Mumbai Indians have become the joint-most successful team in IPL history – wining the title for record five times in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020. In 2017, MI became the first-ever IPL team to cross $100 million in brand value.
By the year 2019, Nita Ambani was instrumental in raising it’s brand value to over $115 million – the highest among all the other franchises. She led the ‘Education and sports for All’ (ESA) initiative as part of MI’s way of giving back to society. ESA has reached over 100,000 underprivileged children and created awareness for education using various media and digital platforms.
IPL was the stepping stone of Nita Ambani’s sporting journey as she looked to promote Olympic sports in India. On 4 June 2016, Nita Ambani was among eight candidates nominated for membership in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by the Swiss-based panel. She was elected as a member of the IOC on 4 August 2016, its first Indian woman member.
How Nita Ambani built the team from 2008 to now
Mumbai Indians started off slow in the Indian Premier League, with Sachin Tendulkar as their ‘icon’ player. An unfortunate injury to Tendulkar before the 2008 season, meant former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh took over the reins of MI.
After struggle in the initial few matches, they managed to finish the inaugural season on a high with 7 wins and 7 losses but missed out on the semifinals by just one point. The subsequent season was a forgettable one in South Africa in 2009 but their resurrection started with the arrival of West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard into the side after the 2010 IPL auctions.
They finally managed to reached their first-ever final in IPL 2010, only to lose by 22 runs to MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings. But MI’s first-ever title came in the form of 2011 Champions League T20 event where they defeated a star-studded Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) side in the final by 31 runs to be crowned champions under the leadership of Harbhajan Singh.
But they had to wait another couple of years before the talismanic Rohit Sharma became the MI captain replacing Ricky Ponting in IPL 2013. It was Nita Ambani’s faith in this young Mumbai batter that chance the fortunes of MI forever.
MI won their first-ever IPL title under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy and capped off a double with a Champions League T20 win in the same year as well. In the next seven years, MI reeled off four more titles – all under the captaincy of opening batter Rohit Sharma/
Young talent has always prospered in Mumbai Indians
MI has always fostered young talent over the years. Whether it was handing the reins of MI at the age of 26 to Rohit Sharma or backing the young tearaway Jasprit Bumrah – who has now become one of the most feared bowlers and possibly an all-time great in all formats of the game.
Apart from Rohit and Bumrah, the likes of Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya and more recently India T20 star Tilak Varma have all emerged from MI. “At MI, we take a lot of pride and satisfaction in scouting and nurturing many young talents who have gone on to play for the Indian team. From Jasprit, Hardik, Tilak, Ramandeep Singh, and now we have a pool of upcoming youngsters and an opportunity to develop the next set of talent – Naman Dhir, Robin Minz, Ashwani Kumar, Raj Angad Bawa and Shrijith Krishnan,” Nita Ambani had said after the IPL 2025 Mega Auction.
“I am very excited to welcome them to the Mumbai Indians #OneFamily and we want to continue this tradition of developing young players for Indian cricket,” Nita Ambani added.
Nita Ambani’s passion made MI one of the most successful franchise
Over the years, Nita Ambani has been instrumental in building MI into one of the most feared and successful team in the Indian T20 league. Only MI and CSK have won five IPL titles ever and they will be gunning to become the first team to win the IPL for an unprecedented sixth time when the IPL 2025 season gets underway next season.