March 21: A little-known consortium picked up the IPL’s new Kochi team for a spectacular sum today, setting off a buzz around its dark-horse promoters and getting linked to minister Shashi Tharoor.

Such was the speculation that swirled around the deal that at one point, some people were mentioning the name of the Arab owner of English football club Manchester City.

Although the Sahara group made the day’s highest bid of $370 million to pocket the Pune franchise, Rendezvous Sports World Limited (RSWL) hogged the spotlight with its $333.33 million Kochi bid at the Chennai auction for the T20 league’s two new teams.

Together, the Indian Premier League’s ninth and 10th franchises — which will start playing from next year — almost equalled the combined bids for the eight older ones two years ago, with Kochi bringing in almost thrice the sum that Mumbai did. (See graphics below)

Tharoor, the junior foreign minister, admitted to giving RSWL his “blessings” but denied involvement in the bid. In the IPL’s power corridors, the talk was that the man behind the consortium could be Abu Dhabi trillionaire Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who had paid a record price for Manchester City.

“To the best of my knowledge, there is no Middle East group involved,” Tharoor said.

Tharoor was the chairman of a Dubai-based company but he had given up the post after entering politics.

RSWL sources said the consortium was led by Shailendra Gaekwad’s Rendezvous and comprised the Kerala-based Elite group of Vivek Venugopal, Anchor Earth, Mumbai-based realtor Parini Developers, Anand Shah Developers and Film Waves.

IPL commissioner Lalit Modi tweeted: “Rendezvous group has Vivek Venugopal, Anchor Switches, Rosy Blue Diamond, Mukesh Patel, Ravi and Sanjay Gaikwad as part of the consortium.” The tweet did not mention any Shailendra.

It wasn’t clear if Anchor Earth or Anchor Switches was associated with Anchor Electricals, a well-known home appliances company in Kerala. The only promoter with a pan-Indian reputation appeared to be Rosy Blue Diamond, which owns the retail diamond jewellery brand Orra.

Rendezvous is a Maharashtra-based firm and a highly placed source said Shailendra Gaekwad was a long-time friend of a top cricketer.

The Thrissur-headquartered Elite is a 45-year-old group with activities in international trade, food processing, distribution, real estate and construction. Tharoor is said to have ushered it into the consortium to lend the RSWL a local flavour.

Soon after the RSWL wrapped up Kochi, Tharoor tweeted: “I am NOT part of the bid but was pleased 2give Rendezvous Sports World my encouragement & blessings.”

The minister’s officer on special duty and right-hand man Jacob Joseph was at the auction and “cheered the loudest”, an IPL source said.

A source in the Ashok Piramal group, which too bid for Kochi, said Tharoor had initially backed a bid by an Uttar Pradesh-based industrial group.

“We know this as this UP group was initially part of our consortium. Tharoor then supported its bid for an IPL team along with some friends from Kerala and the Gulf. But differences cropped up as the UP firm wanted to bid for Noida, and Tharoor was keen on Kochi. So the minister moved on,” the source said. Rosy Blue Diamond and Anchor Electricals, which too were in the Piramal consortium, followed the minister out, he said.

Many NRIs, including some from Kerala, were associated with the RSWL bid, sources in Thiruvananthapuram claimed.

IPL sources said Sheikh Mansour had indicated interest in buying a franchise, leading Modi to announce in February that an English Premier League club might be a prospective bidder.

Today, Modi said: “I thought the bids would be in the region of $320-325 million, but this is a little above my expectations. ”

Venugopal described Tharoor as “our mentor, who lent us his emotional support and overall guidance, without which we would not have made it at all”.

He said that while the other teams were city-specific, the RSWL team was Kerala’s IPL team. “One thing is sure. If we had not come in now, there would not have been a Kerala team in the next 10 years,” he said.