The guest that wasn't with Vijay Mallya
Mallya's presence at the event caused some uneasiness among the Indian players who retreated to the hotel pretty early
The controversy boiling around Vijay Mallya has been going around for some time now. Be it his getaway to England to escape getting arrested or his recent tweet saying he will be going to all the Indian matches. The “King of good times” has recently been the “king of controversy”. His latest one came after India’s first match against Pakistan.
A not so welcome guest
Virat Kohli held a charity ball in London on June 5 to raise money for his charity “Virat Kohli Foundation”. The organizers of the event, however, didn’t pay much heed to the fact that Vijay Mallya’s name was on the list of “hosts” for the event. Mallya’s presence at the event caused some uneasiness among the Indian players who retreated to the hotel pretty early.
TOI was let known of the fact that the task of organizing the event was let out to a London-based firm and they did not go through the guest list thereafter to verify it. The guest list which was procured by TOI shows that Mallya’s company Kingfisher Beer Europe had indeed bought two tables(No. 6 and No. 33). It was found that the No. 6 table was right next to the Indian team who had No. 2 and No. 3 while Kohli had No. 4. The event was wholly organized by the Essentially Group in London.
Rich Hudson, a senior executive of the company spoke to TOI and said,”Yes, we were given the responsibility for organizing the event. The Virat Kohli Foundation was not organizing the event and was not aware of the guest list. In fact, we were also not aware of the names earlier when the tables were bought.We were given the names on the day of the event. The people handling it would not have known who Vijay Mallya was. It’s fortunate”.
“Neither Virat nor his foundation had extended any invitation to any corporate house or individuals to purchase tables at the dinner. Virat hosted the event as it was for a good cause.There were around 700 guests and Kohli didn’t have a clue Mallya would be attending the charity ball”. Well, guess Kohli would have his guest list double checked next time.
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