IPL 2024: BCCI needs to enforce the sale of RCB to a new owner, says tennis legend Mahesh Bhupathi

IPL 2024: RCB’s 25-run defeat against SRH on Monday was its fifth successive loss and the team is at the bottom of the points table with just two points after seven matches.

FILE PHOTO: Former Indian tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi. | Photo Credit: Debasish Bhaduri/The Hindu

Indian tennis legend Mahesh Bhupathi on Monday said that Royal Challengers Bengaluru needs to be sold to a new owner after the Faf du Plessis-led team lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by 25 runs in an IPL 2024 match in Bengaluru.

Sunrisers Hyderabad scored 287 for 3, the highest team total in IPL history, against RCB while batting first at the M Chinnaswamy with Australia’s Travis Head scoring 41-ball 102. In response, the home team could score 262 for 7.

This was RCB’s fifth successive loss and the team is at the bottom of the points table with just two points after seven matches.

RCB is owned by United Spirits Limited. The franchise recently won its first title when the Smriti Mandhana-led team won the second season of the Women’s Premier League last month.

“For the sake of the sport , the IPL, the fans and even the players I think BCCI needs to enforce the sale of RCB to a new owner who will care to build a sports franchise the way most of the other teams have done so,” said the 49-year-old Bhupathi, a former doubles World No. 1 who became the first Indian to win a Major in 1997.

Bhupathi clinched a total of 12 Majors combined in the men’s doubles and mixed doubles category. Three of those titles came with compatriot Leander Paes.