It was all about the wait last evening, a wait for Vijay Mallya to arrive and launch the Bangalore’s IPL team, ‘The Royal Challengers’. In the meantime, it was interesting to watch everyone including the players, arrive on time. At one point Martin Crowe, the CCO of the team, who came all the way from New Zealand said with a smile, “The traffic is flowing smoothly in New Zealand, so I could get to the airport quite easily!” Crowe, Charu Sharma, Venkatesh Prasad and Zaheer Khan said that they were delighted to be involved with the Bangalore team.

There was plenty of booze to pass time with and the who’s who of Bangalore didn’t mind waiting for the host or for the celebration to begin. Amidst confetti and music, the team came out dressed in their bright reddish-orange and yellow uniforms with logo. Designed by Louis Philippe, a collection of uniforms was also unveiled at the event.

Speaking at the event, Vijay Mallya said, “My company has not been involved in cricket till now because such an opportunity had not presented itself. I believe nothing captures the excitement of the sport like the IPL!” 

Mallya also elaborated on the team’s name, “Everyone naturally assumes that the name of the team comes from the fact that it is the name of one of our (UB) products. But let me tell you, the name is more significant than that. Karnataka has a proud history of royalty with the Vijaynagar empire, Tipu Sultan and the Mysore Royal family and ‘royal’ seems an appropriate prefix.

As for the challenge, we love to win and we will take all the teams on in a royal style!” The opening match of the IPL will be between the Royal Challengers and the Night Riders at Chinnaswamy Stadium and Mallya promised a spectacular opening ceremony!