Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham photobomb Sachin Tendulkar’s selfie at ISL launch! 

Please Click on the Photo to Expand

New Delhi, Aug 28, 2014: Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar’s modest attempts of clicking a selfie were photobombed by Bollywood celebs Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham in Mumbai on Thursday. The trio also doubles up as team owners in the ambitious Indian Super League (ISL), a franchise-based football league set to start on October 12. The inaugural edition will conclude on December 20.

Modelled around the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL), the ISL stipulates two games for each team against every team in home and away format. Depending upon their respective ranks and points, top four teams will qualify for the knock out round, ie the semi finals.

Semi finals will also be played in home and away format, making it a total of four semi-final matches. 

With base price of each team set at Rs 12 crore, the most expensive franchise is the Kolkata team, which was won by a group that had former skipper Sourav Ganguly, alongside businessmen Harshavardhan Neotia, Sanjiv Goenka, Utsav Parekh, and Spanish La Liga side Atlético Madrid, for approximately Rs 18 crores.

Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar, alongside PVP Ventures, owns Kerala Blasters.

Among B-town celebs, John Abraham, partnering with Shillong Lajong, owns the Guwahati team.

Ranbir Kapoor, alongside Bimal Parekh, won the bidding of the Mumbai team while Salman Khan won the Pune team with the Wadhawan Group. The Delhi team was won by DEN Networks while the Chennai team was won by a consortium headed by Abhishek Bachchan. The Goa team was won by a three-way partnership between Videocon, Dempo, and Salgaocar.

Apart from the 14 Indian players, seven international players and one marquee player each that the teams have contracted, franchises can independently contract up to five more players.

Courtesy: Daily Bhaskar