Paternity of the Rajasthan Royals!

For the past few days, the ownership of the Rajasthan Royals, winners of the first Indian Premier League tournament, is making headlines. Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra are just stake holders. It seems Suresh Chellaram, who happens to be IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi's brother - in - law, owns 44.1 % stake. Whereas Manoj Badale owns 32.4 %. The remaining is owned by Raj Kundra, Shilpa Shetty and Lachlan Murdoch.

The bid for Rajasthan Royals was won by Emerging Media Ltd. in January 2008. 2.5 million pounds were paid as earnest money.

The contract was signed in April 2008 by Jaipur IPL Pvt. Ltd., which was incorporated in March 2008.

In May 2008, balance bid amount of $ 77 million was paid by third company E. N. Sports Holding Ltd., based in Mauritius.

In Nov - Dec' 2008, Jaipur IPL wanted to offload its shares in Rajasthan Royals to E. N. Sports Holding Ltd., but failed to get permission from RBI. Despite this Jaipur IPL offloaded its shares to E. N. Sports through a bank.

Now, it is interesting to see who is behind E. N. Sports Holding. It seems Suresh Chellaram own 44 % stake in it, through Tresco International Ltd., Manoj Badale owns 32.41% through Emerging Media, the Kundra family owns 11.7 % via Kuki investments (based in Bahamas) and Lachlan Mudroch own 11.7 % of it through Blue Water Estates (Hong Kong).