DLF League

MUMBAI: The Indian Premier League recently extended a helping hand to a worthy and deserving cause by offering four tickets in the chairman’s box to the final match of the 2009 IPL season at a Charity Auction Gala at The Dorchester Hotel in London to raise money for Magic Bus, a Mumbai-based charity.

The IPL tickets were extremely popular at the auction receiving some heated bidding. This showed how the IPL has gained in popularity amongst even a global audience. One of Magic Bus' loyal supporters bid £14,000 for the package. The IPL tickets were thus the top auction lot of the night, raising £7,000 more than any other lot.  Other lots included holidays in Florida, France and Udaipur as well as paintings by Indian artists and a beautiful diamond necklace and earring set. 

A Magic Bus spokesman said, "Lalit Modi very kindly offered us four tickets to the Indian Premier League Final for 2009 to help MAGIC BUS raise money at the Gala. The tickets to the Grand IPL Finale on May 24 2009 included a personal invitation from the Chairman and Commissioner of the IPL for the Winning Bidder and three friends to some five star treatment with first class seats in the Chairman’s Box (these seats are not available to the general public) and an opportunity to meet the players. The tickets also included stay for the winning bidder in the same Five Star Hotel as the Teams and tickets to both the Gala Closing dinner on May 23 and the IPL Final after party on May 24."  

The Honorable Nisha Paul, Chair of the Gala said, "It is very fitting that a sporting prize has raised money for a sport for development charity.  The IPL tickets were an incredible prize and were much appreciated -- they helped us to raise money for children living in poverty that need it the most." 

About Magic Bus

Magic Bus founded in Mumbai in 1999 has worked with Mumbai’s slum children, street children, children of sex workers, remand centre children, bonded labourers, children on construction sites, runaways and orphans.

Magic Bus' aim is to set alight the desire and confidence within children to change their lives and the lives of their communities: to make them realise that they can make a difference.  Sport is a tool used to achieve this, as it teaches children how to overcome physical and mental challenges, learn to work in a team and play side by side with a gender they don’t consider their equal or with rival gang members.  It shows them that the fight for change and to overcome addictions must come from within and that they are worth more than society may tell them.  So what may look like a simple football game or a creative workshop on a Magic Bus programme is actually bringing about vital change to children’s lives that they will then pass on to the communities in which they live.  

The organization now plans to expand its programme to other states in India. The aim of the Gala at the Dorchester Hotel in London was to raise money for Magic Bus' work with children living in the streets and slums of India.

For further information contact:                                    

Percy Dubash / Javed Akhtar                 

Adfactors Public Relations                                

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