New Delhi: After owning teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Caribbean Premier League (CPL), Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan could well but one of the teams in the newly formed South African T20 League.
Named as T20 Global League South Africa, the franchise tournament is expected to announce owners for it's eight teams at the Lord’s Cricket Ground here on June 19.
A report in Mumbai Mirror claimed that SRK’s sports management has been in talks with Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the star has shown interest to buy a team in two of the top cities, Cape Town and Johannesburg. In total, the board has put Johannesburg (two teams), Bloemfontein, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, Durban and Cape Town (two teams) for sale.
With the potential of Indian market known, the initiative was believed to be taken from CSA's end, which has been eying the Indian market eversince it announced the venture two months ago.
While SRK's brandpower is considered as the prime reason behind Kolkata Knight Rider's status as the most popular franchise, CSA zeroed in on SRK hoping his presence will boost the potential and reach of the new tournament.
It is also understood that SRK recently sent his emissary to South Africa for discussion with CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat, where talks were held surrounding the fame KKR and SRK bring to the table.
The CSA is offering Tier 1city (Jo’burg and Cape Town) for $ 50 million – to be paid over a period of 10 years ($ 5 million a year) - Tier 2 cities for $ 30 million ($ 3 million a year).
The salary cap has been pegged at $ 1.5 million (about Rs 10 crore) a year, which as compared to the IPL – Rs 66 crore a year- is pretty low
