MUMBAI: After cricket and hockey, Sahara Group chairman Subroto Roy is showing new interest in a sport that is evolving in India: Formula One motor racing.

Sahara, which owns the Pune franchise of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and sponsors the Indian cricket team, has bought 42.5 per cent stake in Vijay Mallya-owned Force India, the country?s first F1 team, for $100 million.

The team will be renamed Sahara Force India.

Mallya?s UB group will also own an equal stake in the motor racing team while the remaining 15 per cent will be with the Mol family.

In 2007, Mallya and Dutch entrepreneur Michiel Mol had acquired for around 90 million Euros the Spyker Formula One team, which was suffering losses at that time. The team was later rechristened Force India.

In a joint press conference today, India.

In a joint press conference today, Mallya and Sahara said both of them are very happy about the deal and that Mallya will remain the Team Principal.

On 30 October, India will for the first time host Grand Prix at the 120,000-capacity Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, UP.

Mallya, who runs a profitable liquor outfit, needs to find cash to rescue his ailing Kingfisher Airlines business. He also owns the Bangalore franchise of the IPL.

The Sahara group had acquired the Pune franchise of the cash-rich IPL last year for $370 million. It is also the main sponsor of the national cricket team.

Force India is ranked sixth in the Formula One constructor?s standings with 48 points in the current season. The current drivers of the team are German Adrian Sutil and Britain?s Paul Di Resta.

MUMBAI: Finding no takers for the mobile and Internet rights, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has floated a new tender with a lower base price.

Cricket?s richest body has fixed the floor price for these rights at Rs 20 million per match, down from the earlier Rs 30 million.

The BCCI?s decision follows a tepid response from its earlier tender. There was just one party that had submitted a bid but the price was below Rs 30 million that the BCCI was seeking.

The last date for submitting the new bids is 26 September.

There are 17 Test matches, 29 one day internationals, and two Twenty20 games.

A sports marketing executive says that there needs to be some understanding on the part of the board in terms of what these rights are worth. New media is still at a nascent stage and has not grown like in some of the developed countries.

This is the first time that the BCCI is selling mobile and Internet rights to domestic and international matches as a standalone property.

The new media rights were previously held by Nimbus, along with the television rights, way back in 2006. Nimbus had forked out $612 million for the combined rights for four years.