Former cricketer Ajay Jadeja and some others think that Bollywood's participation is the major reason for huge success of the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 cricket matches.

At a FICCI-Frames board discussion on the co-relation between sports and entertainment on Tuesday, the consensus was that the Indian Premier League got successful only on account of the involvement of Bollywood and business giants as franchises of squads.

Observing that the Bollywood's participation was the key to the victory of the IPL, Ajay said this was why more Shahrukh Khan Tee shirts were sold as compared to Sourav Ganguly or any other cricket player.

Indians have grown up more with Hindi film industry rather than sports, and movie house has been a cultural centre, he added.

Other speakers including Triplecom Media chairman and chief executive officer Kunal Dasgupta, actor Rahul Bose and former Indian hockey captain Viren Rasquinha also felt that people who otherwise would not have come for cricket came to see King Khan and other celebs.

Mr. Dasgupta mentioned that the IPL Governing Council glamorized the occasion to spread out its reach.

He admitted that pulling in Mandira Bedi in the year 2003 had been aimed at bringing the glamorous quotient.

The panel members said that cricket players or other sportsmen were not as savvy as film actors when it came to marketing themselves.

''Actors are more effective marketing tools than cricketers even in the sporting world,'' Mr. Bose said. (With Input from Agencies)