Premier League club to buy Indian cricket franchise

A Premier League football club is said to be in the running to buy one of the Indian Premier League cricket franchises in a £143m deal - with Manchester City and Liverpool the most likely candidates.

Lalit Modi, the commissioner and ringmaster of the IPL, said that a "very famous football club" in England was interested in bidding and revealed he was holding discussions with the MCC about it becoming involved with one of the new franchises.

Two new teams are set to enter Inida's annual Twenty20 cricket tournament in 2011. The bidding to buy the franchises will take place before the start of this year's competition which begins in early March.

Modi told the Times: "There is a football club, a very famous football club in the UK, very interested in bidding. [They are] probably one of the most famous football clubs — that's all I can say. Probably top three."

Manchester United have denied they are interested and Modi apparently ruled out Chelsea himself. Arsenal, who do not persue an aggressive marketing strategy outside Europe are unlikely to get inolved - which leaves Liverpool and Manchester City as the main candidates.

City would appear to be the favourites. The club's billionaire Arab owner Sheikh Mansour is from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates where cricket is popular. It has long been assumed in India that there would be bids for one of the franchises from that part of the world.

The Telegraph also reports that the Abu Dhabi Cricket Association has signed a partnership deal with the MCC, which could explain their potentia; involvement.

However a Manchester City official has said that Modi was not referring to them when he made the comments, which could mean that the bidder could be connected to Liverpool.

Last week it was rumoured that two billionaire Indian businessmen, Mukesh Ambani and Subrata Roy were interesting in buying Liverpool. Both already have an interest in cricket in India - Ambani owns the Mumbai Indians IPL franchise, while Roy's Sahara Group is the Indian national team's shirt sponsor. Roy was touted as the more likely of the pair to invest in Liverpool.

Whatever the truth of Modi's assertion, it does reinforce the IPL's aim of becoming the cricketing equivalent to the English Premier League and its international ambitions. Earlier this month one of the exising franchises, the Rajastham Royals, annouced it had signed up with clubs around the world to play under the Royals brand, making it the world's first global sporting brand. ·