Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s Knight Riders Group, on Tuesday, announced their foray into the untapped US cricket marketplace investing in improvement of Major League Cricket with a multi-million dollar T20 tournament.
As per the deal, Knight Riders, will join hands with American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) to develop into a stakeholder in improvement of the sport in the area.
“For several years now, we have been expanding the Knight Riders brand globally and closely watching the potential for T20 cricket in the USA,” Shah Rukh, the principal owner of the Knight Riders group, mentioned in a media statement.
“We are convinced that Major League Cricket has all the pieces in place to execute on its plans and we look forward to making our partnership an enormous success in the coming years.” The upcoming T20 tournament on the lines of hugely prosperous IPL will aim to capture the imagination of the important South Asian diaspora, which contains Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans and Bangladeshis.
Incidentally, US citizen of Pakistani origin, pacer Ali Khan was aspect of this year’s CPL champion Trinbago Knight Riders and was also roped in as initial US player in the IPL ahead of injury reduce brief his journey.
Apart from Shah Rukh, actress Juhi Chawla and her businessman husband Jay Mehta, who are also the co-owners in the Knight Riders Group.
“We are delighted to partner with the Knight Riders Group in this historic partnership,” Sameer Mehta and Vijay Srinivasan of American Cricket Enterprises and Major League Cricket mentioned.
“By adding the Knight Riders Group to our family of world-class and diverse investors, this investment into the future of Major League Cricket is a huge validation of our vision for the new league,” they additional added.
Venky Mysore, the CEO of KKR and Red Chillies Entertainment mentioned: “We have had a keen interest in the developments in the United States and our expansion into the U.S. is consistent with our long-term strategy.
“We appear forward to the new challenge of constructing cricket in the world’s most sophisticated sports and media marketplace and we think that we can bring a big quantity of experience to enable make Major League Cricket recognize the prospective that it undoubtedly has,” Mysore mentioned.