Bollywood star Salman Khan's family has bought stake in the Kandy Tuskers franchise in the Sri Lankan Premier League. The first edition of the league is all set to get underway on November 21. The player draft for the tournament also took place on October 19 with more than 20 foreign players also picked in five different teams. Salman’s younger brother Sohail and his father, a well-known script writer, Salim Khan, are part of the consortium, Sohail Khan international LLP, have invested in the team. The Khan brothers themselves confirmed the development on Tuesday while also stating that they see a lot of potential in the league. “Given the players we have in our team, the league in general, and the passion of the fans, which are second to none, we see a lot of potential,” Sohail Khan told Times of India.
Moreover, he also confirmed that Salman Khan will attend all the matches of Kandy Tuskers during LPL this year. Sohail Khan was happy to have some of the international stars in the team. Apart from the top Sri Lanka cricketers like Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis and Asela Gunaratne, the team managed to get hold of Wahab Riaz, Chris Gayle and Liam Plunkett as their foreign players in the player draft. It is a good balance of youth and experience," he said. Meanwhile, it is understood that the consortium that runs the Quetta Gladiator in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) owns the Galle franchise in the LPL. It has also been learnt that two India-based consortiums and one based out of Sri Lanka own the rest of the three teams. However, there is no clarity over it yet. All the 23 matches in the tournament will be held at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy and Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Hambantota, according to an official media release. In the Lanka Premier League, five franchisee teams, named after Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Dambulla and Jaffna, will compete in 23 matches over a 15-day period for the title.
