Bollywood Hero Shah Rukh Khan currently owns two T20 franchise teams, one from India (Kolkata Knight Riders – KKR in Indian Premier League) and other from West Indies (Trinbago Knight Riders – TKR in Caribbean Premier League). And now it seems SRK has bought another T20 franchise team from South Africa.
According to the reports, Shah Rukh Khan has bought a team in South Africa’s T20 Global League. It is said that Cricket South Africa management has approached the actor who already owns two franchises in different leagues. He also looked to cash in and bought a team in the league.
This league might now hope to bring in some Indian viewership. Thus, Cricket South Africa today announced the host cities, owners and marquee players of the eight teams ahead of the player draft on August 19.
“On behalf of all of us from Knight Riders, congratulations to Cricket South Africa for the launch of exciting new T20 Global League. We are delighted and thankful that you have made Knight Riders part of the new Global League. South Africa is a beautiful country with beautiful people and I really look forward to be a part of the exciting new journey and building something special together. We are particularly thrilled to make Cape Town and Newlands our new home away from home,” said Shah Rukh Khan.
In this league, other than SRK, there is one other Indian owner for a team in this league and it is GMR Group which also own Delhi Daredevils – DD in IPL. This league is hoped to emulate the success of leagues like IPL and Big Bash League. This league is set to start in November and ends on December 16.
“We are certain that our final eight owners have the perfect combination of strategic insight and passion needed to make the first T20 Global League a complete success,” said Cricket South Africa president Chris Nenzani said.
Teams are hosted in eight cities around South Africa like Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth, Stellenbosch, and Benoni.
List of Owners along with franchise’s Marquee players:
Durban – Fawad Rana, Hashim Amla
Benoni – Javed Afridi, Quinton de Kock
Pretoria – Osman Osman (SA), AB de Villiers
Stellenbosch – Mustag Brey (SA), Faf du Plessis
Cape Town – Shah Rukh Khan, JP Duminy
Bloemfontein – Sushil Kumar, David Miller
Johannesburg – GMR Group, Kagiso Rabada
Port Elizabeth – Ajay Sethi, Imran Tahir
Marquee players already signed up include former England batsman Kevin Pietersen, current England limited overs players Eoin Morgan and Jason Roy, and ex-internationals Brendon McCullum (New Zealand) and Chris Gayle (West Indies).
Almost 400 players from 10 countries have confirmed their interest in being part of the draft.