Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan scooped up Australian cricketer Mitchell Starc for a record Rs. 247 million ($3 million) in the Indian Premier League auctions, showing how one of the world’s hottest sports properties continues to attract investment.

According to a Bloomberg report, Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) added the left-arm pacer to its professional cricket league team after a long-drawn bidding war in Dubai on Tuesday.

This beat the record set earlier in the auction by Sunrisers Hyderabad, which offered Rs. 205 million for Australian captain Pat Cummins. Cummins led his team to a World Cup win last month beating India, the tournament favourites, on their home turf.

Ten IPL league teams, including those owned by Asia’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani and overseen by his wife Nita, bid for 333 cricket players in the ongoing auction. The IPL has emerged as a $6.2 billion juggernaut in the cricket-crazy nation of more than a billion people.

Since its inception in 2008, IPL has revolutionized the once-staid game of cricket that was traditionally played over five days by popularizing a shorter three-hour format. Described as the Super Bowl of cricket, it has brought in Bollywood glamour and billions of dollars to become one of the world’s fastest-growing sporting events.

Ambani’s conglomerate secured IPL’s five-year digital rights for almost $3 billion last year, while Walt Disney Co. paid roughly the same for TV rights. The glitzy, American-franchise style tournament has also attracted interest from investors such as Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reported last month.

The religion-like fervour that cricket generates in India has become a giant opportunity for advertisers and those investing in the business of sports, catapulting the Board of Control for Cricket in India to the league of richest sporting bodies globally.

(Image courtesy KKR X page)