Rahul Dravid & Ravichandran Ashwin set to acquire Scottish franchise in European T20 Premier League

Legendary former India players Rahul Dravid and Ravichandran Ashwin are among the latest investors to acquire a franchise in the European T20 Premier League.

BBC Sport understands the pair 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.

It is anticipated the two franchises will be officially announced at an event later this month.

Those deals follow the sale of EPTL franchises in Amsterdam, Belfast and Edinburgh to investors from Australia and New Zealand in January.

The only ETPL city franchise yet be sold is the one based out of Dublin although BBC Sport has been told there has been interest from a variety of different parties, including owners of at least two teams in The Hundred.

Ashwin's involvement is an intriguing one and raises the tantalising prospect of him playing in the ETPL in what would be a major coup for the organisers.

The 39-year-old retired from international cricket in December 2024 and from the Indian Premier League last year and expressed a desire to broaden his horizons in global franchise leagues.

Ashwin had been due to be the first player capped by India at international level to play in the most recent edition of Australia's Big Bash League after he agreed a deal to play for Sydney Thunder.

However, the spin-bowling all-rounder suffered a knee injury while training in Chennai last December and has been in rehabilitation since following surgery.

Ashwin played 106 Tests, 116 ODIs and 65 T20s for India and took 765 wickets.

Dravid's decison to align himself with a franchise based out of Glasgow taps into his historic connection with Scottish cricket.

He played for Scotland as as an overseas professional for a season in 2003 when they still participated in English county cricket limited-overs competitions.

Dravid played 11 games in the National Cricket League where he made 600 runs including three centuries.

More recently, the 53-year-old former batter served as the head coach of the India men's cricket team from November 2021 to June 2024.

Dravid played 164 Tests and 344 one-day internationals for India scoring nearly 25,000 runs across formats including 48 centuries.

Click here to read article