27 August,2009 08:08 AM IST | | Upala KBR
There was a buzz yesterday that Salman Khanu00a0 is planning to buy an Indian Premier Premier League (IPL) cricket team, like Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty.
Salman met IPL commissioner Lalit Modi yesterday at a suburban Mumbai hotel, after which he told the media that the actor had shown interest in buying an IPL team, "He has been interested in buying a team for quite some time.
Today, we had a brief meeting and I explained how to go about with the task. I can assure you that Salman is not the only star who is thinking of buying a team. I have had around 28 queries and the list will surely go up," he said. Modi also admitted that having a film star added to the glitter of the event. "It does add to the spark," he said.
Price tag
According to Modi, the price tag attached to a new IPL team would be in the region of $200 - 300 million. Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra shelled out almost $15 million for a 12 per cent stake in Rajasthan Royals.
However a source close to Salman says, "He bumped into Lalit Modi at a hotel in Bandra and started chatting with him. It was an informal discussion. Salman asked him how he was, what's happening with the IPL and some other detailsu00a0 but that was it.
This talk of Salman buying an IPL team has been going on forever. It's just that celebrities bring certain glamour to IPL and people want stars to be associated with them - like Akshay Kumar was the brand ambassador of the Delhi Daredevils. Similarly, many want Salman to be the brand ambassador of their teams."
Denied it
Salman's brother Sohail Khan says, "It's not true. Salman is not buying any IPL team. Yesterday when he was shooting for Dus Ka Dum I called up bhai and asked him whether it was true and he denied it."
