New Delhi, March 6 (IANS) Former India cricketers Rahul Dravid and Ravichandran Ashwin are reportedly among the investors to acquire a franchise in the European T20 Premier League.

In January this year, ETPL announced Amsterdam, Edinburgh and Belfast as the first franchise cities to join the competition, which is scheduled to begin at the end of August this year.

According to a BCC report, Dravid and Ashwin are part of an Indian consortium who have agreed a deal to buy the Glasgow-based franchise in the six-team tournament taking place this summer.

The ETPL are also poised to sell the second Dutch franchise – based in Rotterdam – to a group of South Africa investors fronted by ex-Proteas players Faf du Plessis, Heinrich Klaasen and Jonty Rhodes, the report added.

Amsterdam will be owned by a group led by Australian cricket great Steve Waugh, alongside five-time World Player of the Year and Olympic gold medallist Jamie Dwyer, and by former CEO of the Centre for Australia-India Relations and former Partner at KPMG Australia, Tim Thomas.

Edinburgh will be owned by former New Zealand internationals Nathan McCullum and Kyle Mills, a former New Zealand fast bowler and former ICC No.1 ODI bowler. Meanwhile, Belfast will be owned by Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, with Rohan Lund, a former Group CEO of NRMA.

The report further claimed that ETPL are also poised to sell the second Dutch franchise – based in Rotterdam – to a group of South Africa investors fronted by ex-Proteas players Faf du Plessis, Heinrich Klaasen and Jonty Rhodes. Moreover, rhe only ETPL city franchise yet be sold is the one based out of Dublin , for which there has been interest from the owners of at least two teams in The Hundred.

The ETPL is being run in collaboration with the cricket boards of Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands.

Bollywood actor and film producer Abhishek Bachchan is a part-owner of the league in conjunction with Rules Sport Tech, a private Indian company.

–IANS

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