Mumbai: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s Knight Riders Group, on Tuesday, announced that they were investing in the development of Major League Cricket of the US with a multi-million dollar T20 tournament.
As per the deal, Knight Riders will join hands with American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) to become a stakeholder in the development of the sport in the region, IndiaTV reported.
“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, said 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,” India TV quoted him as saying.
Actress Juhi Chawla and her businessman husband Jay Mehta are also 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 were quoted as saying.
“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 further added.
Venky Mysore, the CEO of KKR and Red Chillies Entertainment said: “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 look forward to the new challenge of building cricket in the world’s most sophisticated sports and media market and we believe that we can bring a huge amount of expertise to help make Major League Cricket realize the potential that it undoubtedly has,” Mysore was quoted as saying.