MUMBAI - Indian Premier League team Kolkata Knight Riders, co-owned by popular Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, has picked up a stake in the city-based Major League Cricket in the United States, the Twenty20 league has said.

The inaugural season of MLC, featuring six franchises, is expected to commence in 2022. It will the third T20 league to see the involvement of the Knight Riders Group, which also owns the Trinbago Knight Riders in the Caribbean Premier League.

The Trinbago Knight Riders won their fourth CPL title in the last six seasons during an unbeaten championship in 2020, while KKR have won two IPL titles.

"For several years now, we have been expanding the Knight Riders brand globally and closely watching the potential for T20 cricket in the USA," Khan said in a statement.

"We are convinced that Major League Cricket has all the pieces in place to execute on its plans and we look forward to making our partnership an enormous success in the coming years."

(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; Editing by Alex Richardson) ((sudipto.ganguly@thomsonreuters.com; +91 22 6841 4383; Twitter: @Sudipto_Reuters;))