You have probably read a lot about this, haven’t you. Who is Aryaman Birla? What is his relation with Rajasthan Royals? How did Aryaman Birla become RCB chairman from a first-class cricketer? Who is the Aditya Birla Group heir who will now take on the role of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) chair? I get it. So, now that you have clicked on this link, you must be wondering what extra you will learn? The answer is a lot.
Aryaman Birla is not the lone owner of RCB
People are still not clear about who actually owns RCB. For now, it is still the United Spirits Limited Group (USL), which is owned by Diageo India. But the catch is that the Aditya Birla Group, where Aryaman is a Director, is only one of the four companies that decided to buy RCB, not the only one.
The deal between USL and the Birla-led consortium—which includes The Times of India Group, Bolt Ventures, and Blackstone’s perpetual private equity strategy, BXPE (Blackstone)—has been finalized at $1.78 billion.
What’s lacking, though, is ratification from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council, the Competition Commission of India and other regulatory authorities that handle company buyouts, to make it official.
The 70,000 Crore Factor
While the team price tag is historic, the Rs 70,000 crore figure often linked to Aryaman represents a significant portion of his personal stake and net worth within the broader 2.32 lakh crore Rupees (23 billion US Dollars) family empire. At 28, this makes him the youngest individual ever to hold a leadership role in an IPL franchise, bringing a financial muscle to the team that dwarfs even the biggest superstar’s earnings.
How did Aryaman Birla’s cricketing journey begin?
Like every young kid in India, Birla grew up watching the game that everyone loves to watch and play. But unlike others, his motivation to play cricket was not to get famous, but the love of the game. After all, the son of industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla was not lacking anything. Thus began his journey to find the real him.
Aryaman left Mumbai because he knew getting picked in the crowded Mumbai Maidans would require luck if he were to completely shed his identity. What he wanted though was more than luck. He wanted recognition based on the skills he had honed while training in England. So he shifted his base to Madhya Pradesh and entered the district team trials of Rewa. This was the same place where he was training. He had permanently moved to the Ultratech’s plant in Rewa, acquired by the Aditya Birla Group when they acquired the entire Jaypee cements in 2017.
Having trained under Paul Weekes, a former Middlesex cricketer, and played for West Hampstead Cricket Club in England, Aryaman hit the ground running and made it to the MP state team.
How did Aryaman Birla play with Rajat Patidar?
RCB’s current captain Rajat Patidar will remember Aryaman well, having played alongside him. Patidar featured in every game Aryaman played, right from his debut against Orissa in 2017 to his final game against Andhra in 2019. In fact, Patidar opened alongside Aryaman in his opening match at the Holkar Stadium in Indore and saw him score 16 and six in his first two First-Class innings.
How was Aryaman Birla as a cricket player?
Although Aryaman managed to keep his place in the team despite not scoring big in his first chance in First-Class cricket, his List-A numbers were truly disappointing.
The left-handed opening batter had scores of 7 (27 balls), 10 (28 balls), and 19 (51 balls) in his first three innings in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018. The fourth match, for which he was slated and named in the playing 11, got washed out. Naturally, he did not play any further part in that year’s Vijay Hazare Trophy.
It was not the amount of runs he was scoring that became a problem, but the way he was batting. In 2018-19, as an opening batter, no one would be allowed to bat 51 balls and get out for 19 after that.
The Ranji Trophy Hundred at Eden Gardens
Aryaman lived the dream of every cricketer: to hit a century, more importantly a red-ball century at Eden Gardens, the mecca of Indian cricket. While his team were down and out against Bengal in the Ranji Trophy 2018-19, the son of one of the richest industrialists in the country decided to show up and how.
After failing in the first innings by scoring only 12 off 34 balls, Aryaman put his foot down and kept one end tight, not losing his wicket at all. When MP was at 69/3 and staring at an innings defeat, he and Shubham Sharma added a match-saving unbeaten 171 for the fourth wicket.
In his only First-Class century, Aryaman hit 12 fours and a six, spending 271 minutes at the crease.
Aryaman’s departure from active cricket
People thought the Birla heir was finally here to rule cricket. But that Eden Gardens ton turned out to be a one-off. He failed big time after that, unable to score even a fifty in his next 11 innings. These sluggish performances in First-Class cricket can only be afforded by players who have represented India or are IPL stalwarts. Even if you are a Birla, you will be questioned and feel pressured. That’s what happened. It made Aryaman rethink about his career as a cricketer.
Aryaman, took an indefinite sabbatical after the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy and was never seen on the cricket field again. In one of his Instagram posts in December 2019, he wrote, “I’ve felt trapped. I’ve pushed myself through all the distress so far, but now I feel the need to put my mental health and wellbeing above all else. We all have our own journeys and I want to take this time to understand myself better, open my mind to new and varied perspectives and seek purpose in my findings.”
So he left cricket. But what turned out to be a break from cricket was actually a return to the love of his life, albeit in a different format.
Aryaman Birla returns to cricket as RCB Chairman
Aryaman was once drafted by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 30 Lakh in the 2018 auction. 8 years later, he could have returned to the same franchise as the owner. But instead of returning to RR, he made a move that had more logic than emotion.
Having earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and gaining the experience of playing cricket at the level that truly shapes cricketers, Aryaman decided to buy the biggest fish in the pool: RCB.
From opening the batting with Rajat Patidar and sharing the dressing room with him, Aryaman will now make decisions with the same guy, who is now the RCB captain—the one who finally won them the trophy—in the boardroom.
The pressure of expectations and mounting self-rebuke may have forced him to hit a roadblock as a cricketer. But in his second innings, as chairman of the most followed cricket team in the world, the greater expectations that will come his way, will hardly make him flinch, as the man is ready to own them, having batted out his mental demons.