The world’s richest cricket board threw some mind-numbing scores today as companies and Bollywood made a beeline for the BCCI headquarters here to be part of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Mukesh Ambani, Vijay Mallya, Lachla Murdoch, Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta won bids winners to own city-oriented IPL teams. The IPL kicks off on April 18.

IPL commissioner and BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi informed about the Rs 7,000 crore bid earnings and said: “This is something that cricket has never seen. We are taking the game on par with other global sports.”

IMG senior vice-president Andrew Wildblood, called this a “ground-breaking venture”. “There is no precedent for what has been achieved by Modi and BCCI in the last 10 days,” he added.

UB group chairman Mallya arrived in a gleaming red Bentley and Bollywood star Zinta stepped out of a Rolls Royce at Wankhede Stadium premises. It was clear that sharp suits and glamour were now officially on the cricket bandwagon.

Mallya, won the bid for Bangalore, and said: “This will be a perfect emotional platform to showcase my products.”

Zinta pocked Mohali along with industrialists Ness Wadia, Karan Paul and Mohit Burman, and gave a “we won” cry to the media and later spoke about her team’s sure signing Yuvraj Singh. “I am a big fan of his,” she said.

Bollywood’s biggest name Shah Rukh Khan, whose production house Red Chillies got the Kolkata franchise, didn’t turn up for the bidding but he inform the media later that he looked forward to working with Sourav Ganguly.

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