A day before the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announces the franchisee for the eight Indian Premier League (IPL) teams, Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan seems the front-runner to pocket the biggest cricketing brand — Mumbai.

The fact that getting Mumbai also means a chance for a corporate to associate with Sachin Tendulkar, there has been a buzz in the financial capital on the eve of the announcement. Besides Khan’s production house Red Chillies Entertainment, Reliance Industries (Mukesh Ambani group), the Future Group and Videocon too are in the race to get Mumbai.

Meanwhile, the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) Group—that until now was being rumoured to be in the race—has pulled out. “We’re not keen. We had applied but after giving a lot of thought, we pulled out,” a Reliance ADA spokesperson told The Indian Express today.

An IPL source said: “There is a chance that Shah Rukh could bid successfully for more than one team.”

Besides Red Chillies, other contenders in the fray, say IPL sources, are the GMR Group (for Hyderabad ), Vijay Mallya (for Bangalore) and the TVS Group (for Chennai).

The twelve cities identified, apart from Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai, are New Delhi, Kolkata, Gwalior, Mohali, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Kanpur and Cuttack. The choice of the cities has been based on market forces and therefore it is only logical that metros Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and cities like Bangalore will be prized possessions for the IPL. Among these 12 cities, cities showing the highest value—according to the bids received—will be selected as the eight venues.

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