London, Mar 25 : Liquor baron and owner of the Bangalore Royal Challengers, Vijay Mallya, has said that he would have preferred England to host the second season of the Indian Premier League.

The Twenty20 competition was moved out of India because of a clash of dates with general elections and the IPL organisers sealed a deal to organise the event in South Africa.

"To be honest, I would have preferred England to South Africa," the Daily Express quoted Mallya, as saying.

New Delhi, Mar 19 : The owner of the IPL franchise Bangalore Royals, Vijay Mallya, on Thursday backed the tournament to pass off smoothly.

Addressing reporters here, Mallya said India had all the resources required to provide security during the tournament.

New York, Mar 6: Indian liquor and airline magnate Vijay Mallya bought Mahatma Gandhi’s personal belongings for Rs. 9.3 crores (1.8 million dollars) in an atmosphere of high drama and frenzied bidding.

Mallya said he “bided for the country at the auction after last-ditch attempts by India to “stall the sale of the memorabilia fell through.”

New York, Mar. 6: Mahatma Gandhi’s five personal objects, including the iconic round eye glasses, were bought by Indian liquor baron VJ Mallya for 1.8 million dollars.

The controversial auction has gone ahead in New York, despite protests from India, and the United States-based owner James Otis’ last-minute attempt to halt it.

Finally, Gandhi’s belongings were bought by Indian businessman VJ Mallya for 1.8 million dollars, who said he was bidding for the country and plans to return them to Indian Government.

Vijay Mallya, owner of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) has maintained that he has not yet finalized Rahul Dravid as the skipper of the Indian Premier League team.

Commenting over the media report that Dravid has been retained as captain of the team, Mallya said, "Who said so? After all, I am the boss of the team. I will decide who will be the captain."

Vijay Mallya, the owner of the Bangalore Indian Premier League team dismissed information that the team was up for sale as the trading window for the second season opened on Monday.

Mallya said, “There has been some misinterpretation of a statement issued by my Bangalore office. The Bangalore IPL team is not for sale and neither do we seek to transfer a majority of our current players.”