Venkateshwara Hatcheries, a seller of poultry products based in the western Indian city of Pune, has emerged as the rather unlikely buyer of Blackburn Rovers, a football club that plays in the English Premier League, for £46 million, reports Economic Times of India.

Speculation has been rife for many months about the alleged desire of Indian industrialists to buy football clubs. But media reports on the subject had featured the two Ambani brothers and Subrata Roy, the owner of the Sahara Group. Clubs such as Liverpool, a giant of English football, are rumoured to have been on the menu of Indian buyers.

Yesterday (26 October), Venkateshwara Hatcheries, popularly known as Venky's, became the first Indian owner of an EPL team.

VH Group chairperson, Anuradha Desai, told the newspaper: "We expect to complete the formalities for the acquisition in the next three to four days although informally, the Premier League has conveyed its happiness over the proposed deal."