KOLKATA: Even if India’s cricket administrators bar Pakistani players from participating in the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL), who says IPL franchise owners cannot recruit them for teams they have bought overseas – beyond Indian jurisdiction?
As it turns out, Indian cricket investors in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), which begins on Wednesday, are not altogether averse to having Pakistani players on board. And they include Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.
Of the four Pakistani players to have been picked up at the CPL auctions this February — Sohail Tanvir, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal and Imad Wasim — two will play for franchises owned by Indians who have IPL teams.
The other two will turn out for outfits owned by investors with Indian roots. The Indian link with CPL began last year, when India’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer Hero MotoCorp Ltd signed the title sponsorship deal with the league; this has now been extended to 2018.
Indian link
Shoaib Malik will turn out for Barbados Trident, bought earlier this year by troubled Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya – who formerly owned the Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore, and still remains its “chief mentor”.
However, it is rumoured that Mallya, hounded by Indian banks for dues of over INR 90 billion (about PKR 140 billion), has since then re-sold the franchise to Nita Ambani, who owns IPL team Mumbai Indians.
This means Malik will still be playing for an IPL franchise owner, whose husband is the billionaire Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in India with a net worth of $20.3 billion.
Umar Akmal will play for Trinbago Knight Riders, co-owned by Shah Rukh Khan and the husband-wife duo of industrialist Jay Mehta and actress Juhi Chawla.
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