Delhi Capitals is one of the eight initial teams of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Do you know who is the owner of the Delhi Capitals? The owner of Delhi Capitals currently is the JSW Group and GMR Group. Vinod Bisht is the CEO of the Delhi-based franchise presently.
Initially, the Delhi-based franchise was sold to the GMR group back in 2008 as the latter bought it for a sum of 84 million US Dollars. However, just before the 2018 season began, the GMR group sold 50% of their stake to the JSW group for a whopping sum of INR 550 crore (nearly 85 million US dollars). Thus, for the last four years, Delhi Capitals have been co-owned by JSW and GMR groups.
Also, the deal between the two sides says that every two years, there will be a swap of the team management, which came into effect from the start of the 2019 season of the IPL. In 2019 and 2020, Delhi Capitals’ functioning was headed by JSW’s Parth Jindal and for the coming two seasons, it will be the GMR group who will serve as the top management of the Delhi Capitals. Overall, Kiran Kumar Grandhi, representing the GMR group, and Parth Jindal who is heading the JSW group are at the forefront of leading the Delhi Capitals on the management side of things.
The Delhi-based franchise started with the name Delhi Daredevils and they were a successful side in the first few years. In 2008 and 2009, they made it to the top four, and in fact, in 2009, they even topped the league stages. However, they couldn’t cross the semi-final hurdle. In 2010, they narrowly missed out on the semi-final spot as they finished fifth. 2011 was a bad year for them as they ended up with the wooden spoon (10th). They got back up in style in 2012 and dominated the entire league phase as they once again finished at the top of the points table at the end of the league stages. However, they faltered in the Qualifiers and couldn’t even make it to the final of the season.
From then on till 2018, it was a downward curve for the Delhi Daredevils. In 2013 and 2014, they once again had a wooden spoon finish as they ended ninth and eighth, respectively. A year later, in 2015, they rose just one spot above to finish seventh. For a couple of years – 2016 and 2017, Delhi managed a middling season and finished at the sixth spot. Just when they had a couple of seasons where they avoided the last spot, it was back to square one in 2018 as they finished eighth.
Things looked downhill for Delhi but the tide turned in 2019. Ricky Ponting had been roped in as head coach in 2018 itself while Shreyas Iyer was made captain midway through the 2018 season. That partnership continued for Delhi and that clicked. Moreover, a change in name has changed their fortunes big time. In 2019, they went from being called ‘Delhi Daredevils’ to ‘Delhi Capitals’.
Since then, they have made it to the playoffs in both the completed years. In 2019, the Shreyas Iyer-led side lost out in the second Qualifier and finished third. In 2020, they went one step further and reached the final of an IPL season for the first time ever. However, Delhi couldn’t lift that IPL trophy and lost to Mumbai Indians (MI) in the final of the IPL 2020.
Even in 2021, Delhi Capitals were at the top of the points table before the tournament was suspended due to the increasing COVID-19 cases in the various team bio-secure bubbles. They had won six out of their eight games and were going strong.
At the moment, Ricky Ponting is the current head coach while Rishabh Pant led the Delhi Capitals in the 2021 season as Shreyas Iyer was ruled out due to injury. Ponting has been around for four years now. Meanwhile, Pravin Amre (batting coach), James Hopes (fast bowling coach), Samuel Badree (spin bowling coach), Mohammad Kaif (fielding coach), Ajay Ratra (wicket-keeping coach) and Vijay Dahiya (talent scout) are the other coaching staff. Patrick Farhart is the team physio while Siddharth Bhasin is the team manager.
Iyer is expected to return at the helm once the IPL 2021 resumes. Alongside Rishabh Pant and Shikhar Dhawan, Iyer is one of the faces of the Delhi Capitals franchise. The likes of Kagiso Rabada, Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma and others have been a vital cog of this Delhi Capitals franchise.
While the elusive IPL title has evaded them, Delhi Capitals are very well placed at the moment in IPL 2021. On resumption, they just need a couple more wins to seal a spot in the playoffs and it will be their third straight season where they have qualified for the knockout rounds.
