Ambani Denies Interest in Bidding for IPL Cricket Franchise

India's second-richest man, Anil Ambani, denied a claim from Indian Premier League Chairman Lalit Modi that he may bid for a franchise in the Twenty20 cricket competition.

``We categorically deny any interest as claimed by Mr. Lalit Modi,'' an Ambani spokesman said in an e-mailed statement today.

Modi said in an interview in London on Oct. 24. that Ambani ``is very interested and we will add one more team next year.''

The IPL, a six-week tournament which completed its inaugural competition in June, has drawn some of the best players in the world, including South African Jacques Kallis and Australian Andrew Symonds, and generated revenue of about $200 million, an all-time high for a single season in the sport.

Modi said the first season had been a ``fantastic success,'' and anticipated that the franchise sale for the league's ninth team may bring in as much as $200 million. Media reports in India said there could be as many as four new teams by 2011. Modi declined to say when the new franchise would be chosen or where it would be located.

In January 2008, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which runs the IPL, sold its broadcast rights to Sony Corp. and World Sport Group, a Singapore-based marketer, for $1 billion over 10 years. ESPN Inc. and News Corp.'s Star Sports network, which have a joint venture in India, followed in September with a deal worth almost $1 billion to broadcast the Champions League -- a new tournament featuring the best Twenty20 teams.

Auctioned Off

Modi, 44, auctioned off the IPL's eight city teams in 2008 to investors including Ambani's brother and India's richest man Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd. Bollywood film star Shah Rukh Khan, and News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch's son Lachlan Murdoch took part in the bidding, which raised about $724 million.

The IPL has lured some of cricket's best players by paying the highest salaries the game has seen. In February, Kallis signed a $2.7 million contract for three seasons with the Bangalore Royal Challengers, and Symonds fetched $4 million for three seasons from the Deccan Chargers.

Twenty20 is the newest form of the game. The big-hitting shorter format has led to a spike in sponsorships and public interest in cricket since the first match in England in 2003.

Forbes magazine estimates that 49-year-old Ambani, owner of some of India's biggest businesses, is worth $42 billion, while his brother Mukesh is worth $43 billion. They don't speak.