Vishnu Manchu buys minority stake in ICL's Hyderabad Heroes

Hyderabad, Aug 22 (UNI) Vishnu Manchu, famous for his blockbuster Telugu movie 'Dhee', has forayed into cricket by buying minority percentage stakeholding of the Hyderabad heroes company of the Indian Cricket League (ICL).

Addressing a press conference here last night, ICL Executive Board member Kiran More said, ''On behalf of ICL, I welcome on board the Telugu film industry star Vishnu Manchu as an investor and enthusiastic cricketer''.

Vishnu's impressive credentials as an entrepreneur and his popularity in Hyderabad adds solidity to ICL's objective of promoting domestic Indian cricket, he said.

''At ICL, we have consciously made plans to improve and promote the game from grassroots level. We, at ICL, believe that the right balance of time, money and opportunities through our initiatives will help any young cricketer build his career like a thorough professional and even earn a livelihood by playing quality cricket'', he said.

Manchu said, ''Initiatives like ICL should be welcomed and promoted by all those people who have the passion like me for the game...I promise to make all efforts to take my team and company ICL Heroes Sports Pvt Ltd to a higher level of quality cricket and cricketers. What I like about ICL is the focused approach of providing quality cricket for millions of cricket lovers.'' ICL plans to form eight individual companies for the eight teams, each representing an important geographical region of the country.

This will give opportunities for potential sponsors and sports investors to double their advantage by becoming minority stakeholders and brand builders.

ICL Heroes Sports Pvt Ltd Business head Sanjay Reddy also launched the Hyderabad Heroes website www.hyderabadheroes.com.

UNI VA VV PY SSC1345