Salman to buy an IPL team? Sohail Khan says No!

Bollywood action hero Salman Khan is the latest cine star to join the Indian Premier League (IPL) gravy train and has expressed interest in buying a team.

Salman met IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi here Tuesday and was briefed about the nitty-grittes of buying an IPL franchise.

The fourth season of the IPL in 2011 will see two new teams and they would be up for grabs through a bidding process later this year.

Modi said Salman is interested in buying an IPL team. "He has been interested to buy a team for quite some time, " Modi added.

"Today we had a brief meeting and I explained him how to go about with the task. I can assure you that Salman is not the only star who is thinking to buy a team. I have had around 28 queries and the list will surely go up, " he said.

IPL vice-president Niranjan Shah told that Salman is a serious buyer and will bid for one of the two new teams.

"Salman is a serious buyer and is contemplating to buy an IPL team. He came along with couple of his friends and was briefed by Lalit on the procedure to buy IPL franchise, " said Shah.

Shah went on to add that cities like Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Vishakhaptanam are in fray to be the hometown for new teams.

"It will be an open tender process and the city that gets the highest bidder will be the new IPL team, " he said.

Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla are the co-owners of Kolkata Knight Riders while Preity Zinta is also a joint owner of Kings XI Punjab. Shilpa Shetty and her boyfriend Raj Kundra also bought some stakes 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 details but that was 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."

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