IPL Auction 2018: Coming from a royal family, Aryaman Birla joins the Rajasthan Royals
What's the story?
As the eight IPL teams broke the bank to procure some top-flight players such as Ben Stokes and Jaydev Unadkat at the IPL auctions in Bengaluru, a young cricketer born in the decorated city of Mumbai, Aryaman Birla's name was doing its rounds on social media.
Aryaman Birla, 20, was snapped up by the Rajasthan Royals against his base price of ₹20 lakhs after going unsold in the first round. Being the son of Kumar Mangalam Birla, who is one of India's biggest business tycoons, details of the purchase was all over social media and the youngster's determination to succeed in a field alien to his family's line of interests was a major topic of discussion.
In case you didn't know...
Aryaman, who opted for a career in cricket over the field of business started playing cricket in Mumbai before he shifted base to Madhya Pradesh. His father, Kumar Mangalam Birla, who is the chairman of the Aditya Birla Group has a net worth of $12.6 billion, as reported by Forbes in a recent study.
Heart of the Matter
The 20-year old youngster stole the spotlight with a well crafted 153-run knock against Odisha in the Under-23 Col CK Nayudu Trophy last year from which he emerged as the top-run scorer with 795 runs from six matches that could have only allured the franchises to bid for the left-handed batsman.
Kumar Mangalam Birla, on the other hand, is already established in the field of business and needs no introduction. With an eye-popping net worth of close to $12.6 billion, the chancellor of the Birla Institute of Technology & Science is also a Hon.Fellow from the London Business School and a Chartered Accountant from ICAI (India).
The 50-year old is also a major educationist and is the chairman of IIT Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad apart from serving as the chairman of the Rhodes India Scholarship Committee for the Oxford University.
While Birla continues to rake in the riches and contribute to the meteoric rise of the business industry, his son will embark on another milestone and will play along with some great names in the Indian Premier League.
Author's Take
Now that Aryaman is one step closer to achieving his dream by being a part of the highly-talented core of cricketers at the Rajasthan Royals camp such as Steven Smith, Ben Stokes and Ajinkya Rahane, Aryaman can be expected to learn a lot from the IPL seasons and bring more fame to his family's name, albeit through the wonderful sport of cricket.