IPL 2020 | Ricky's gonna have to pull his hair out deciding DC's XI, opines Parth Jindal
Delhi Capitals owner Parth Jindal has opined that Ricky Ponting will have a difficult time choosing the team as the team is packed with talent. He added that he wants to establish Delhi Capitals as one of the best franchises in the league along with Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians.
In 2018, Indian business conglomerate Jindal South West (JSW), of which Parth Jindal is a senior director, bought a 50% stake in the Delhi franchise, paying Rs 550 crore (about US$85 million) to hold joint ownership with the GMR Group. With that, Parth Jindal, at 30, became one of the youngest franchise owners in the IPL. The deal also involves JSW and GMR swapping roles to lead the team management every two years which means the 2020 IPL is the last of JSW's first cycle as lead managers.
Jindal reckoned that he has fulfilled his role of owner and team management by providing the best possible squad to Ricky Ponting. He credited the GMR group for trusting youngsters and strengthening the core of Delhi Capitals.
“We have a fantastic team this year. We are, on paper, a really strong squad. Ricky's gonna have to pull his hair out deciding the XI. That's all that an owner and management team can do: give the head coach the best possible squad for him to choose from. Very, very excited,” Jindal said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
“I'd like to give a lot of credit to the GMR Group and to Kiran [Grandhi, of GMR, co-owner] because a lot of the players that they entrusted or they took deep bets on, like Prithvi Shaw, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Sandeep Lamichhane - all these young players, they backed them before they became big names. They were backing them since 2015. And when we took over the Delhi Capitals' management from GMR, the core of the team was very well set. It made my job a lot easier, knowing that we had such phenomenal talent.”
DC had a good run last year as they reached the knockouts of the tournament for the first time in 7 years. Jindal stated that he wanted to cement the franchise as one of the best franchises in the cash-rich league.
“Our aim is, both on the field and off the field we want to cement ourselves as one of the top three IPL franchises, behind MI and CSK. Slowly try and break into that top two as well - and that can only happen if we win an IPL or two. Without that, tough to dislodge those two great IPL franchises, but that's our ambition,” he added.