The 14th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will end on October 15 and two days later, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will conduct e-bidding for two new IPL teams. Bids can be submitted till October 5 to buy the teams. A source close to the scheme said on Tuesday that the BCCI had floated the tender for bidding for IPL franchises on August 31.
The cities whose teams can appear in the 2022 IPL include Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Indore, Cuttack, Guwahati and Dharamsala. However, a BCCI office-bearer told Dainik Jagran that Lucknow and Ahmedabad are at the forefront. There are two reasons for that, one is that many companies have shown interest in these two places, secondly the cricket infrastructure is very strong here.
Adani Group is looking to take the team from Ahmedabad, while several teams including RP Sanjeev Goenka Group and Aditya Birla Group may bid for Lucknow. Ahmedabad has the largest cricket stadium in the world, while Lucknow has the Atal Vihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium. It is considered to be one of the most modern stadium in India. Apart from this, cricket fans are the most in the Hindi belt. Everyone believes that there should be an IPL team in the country’s largest state and Hindi heartland Uttar Pradesh.
Dainik Jagran had already reported that BCCI will go with one state one IPL team formula this time and this is the reason why Pune is not named among the proposed cities as Maharashtra already has Mumbai Indians team. Had the one state, one team formula not been put in place, then RP Sanjeev Goenka Group would have bid for Pune. This group has already kept the Rising Pune Supergiant team for two years.
The IPL Governing Council has invited bids for two new teams from the 2022 season through a tender process. Any interested party who wishes to submit the bid will have to purchase the tender invitation. However, those who fulfill the eligibility as mentioned in the invitation of tender and fulfill other terms and conditions will be eligible to bid. It is clarified that mere purchase of tender invitation will not entitle any person to bid. Many people have also bought tender invitations.
BCCI will benefit:
With the addition of two new teams, BCCI can benefit at least Rs 5000 crore. IPL is currently played between eight teams, but from next year 10 teams will play in it. Earlier, the base price of the two new teams was being considered at Rs 1700 crore, but now it has been decided to increase the base price to Rs 2000 crore. There can be 74 matches in IPL next season and it will be a win-win situation for everyone.
Only companies having a turnover of Rs 3000 crore or more in a year will be allowed to participate in the bidding process. Not only this, BCCI is also allowing a group of companies to buy the team. This will make the bidding process more interesting. “If three companies want to come together and bid for a team, they are welcome to do so. This will not allow a consortium of more companies to come together,” the source said.