The much-talked-about Indian Premier League players’ auction 2018 concluded in Bengaluru on Sunday evening. In the auction, almost 500 players’ went under the hammer in which 169 players were sold to the different franchises and a total of Rs 4,31,70,00,000 was spent on buying the players.
In the auction, when the franchises were busy buying cricketers, one name that caught everyone’s attention in particular was that of Aryaman Vikram Birla.
Aryaman, who is the son Kumar Mangalam Birla, one of the biggest industrialists of India, remained unsold on day one of the auction, but picked by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 30 lakh on day two.
Interestingly, as per a report given in the Business magazine Forbes, Aryaman’s father, who is Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, one of the largest conglomerates in India has a net worth of $12.6 billion.
Even though Aryaman is the son of one of the biggest industrialists, instead of driving fancy cars, he chose to sweat it out in the cricketing field.
Aryaman had moved to Madhya Pradesh for playing cricket and now in the eleventh edition of rich-cash league, he will play along with the Aussie skipper Steve Smith, India’s Test specialist Ajinkya Rahane and England all-rounder Ben Stokes for Rajasthan Royals.
Last year, while talking to Deccan Chronicle, the-20-year-old had said, “I’ve played cricket my entire life. I was eight, maybe nine-years-old when I started playing. I played a lot of sports when I was a kid, but cricket was the one that stood out for me. There was no definite moment when I realised I wanted to pursue it as my career. It was a natural progression from it being a hobby to now playing it professionally.”
While talking about his experience in Mumbai, he said “Playing in Mumbai is a great learning process. Growing up with cricketers that I did, I learned a lot. Slogging it out in the Mumbai nets has been important not only for me, but it is so for every aspiring cricketer. And it’s not something I’ve had to do differently.”
Aryaman had scored 153 runs against Odisha in Indore in October last year during the Under-23 Col CK Nayudu Trophy.