New IPL teams in Lucknow & Ahmedabad as RP Sanjiv Goenka group & CVC win with mega bids

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday announced the two new franchises for the Indian Premier League (IPL), making the lucrative tournament a 10-team affair. Lucknow and Ahmedabad are the two new cities added to the IPL roster of teams for the 2022 edition. As per the BCCI, Sanjiv Goenka-owned RP Sanjiv Goenka group (RPSG) has won with a Rs 7000 crore bid to purchase the Lucknow team. The owner of the Ahmedabad team is CVC Group. The new teams will make their debut in the 2022 edition of the cash-rich tournament.

According to PTI, the BCCI was expecting a windfall in the range of Rs 10,000 crore but to their surprise, earned Rs 12,690 crore from the two new teams that will take part in the 2022 IPL.

IPL auction for new teams

According to reports, more than 22 entities had bought the bid documents but not all were present during the bidding of the two new teams in the UAE. The biggest prospects amongst the potential bidders were Jindal Steel, Torrent Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma, Avram Glazer (Manchester United's owner), Adani Group, Sanjeev Goenka-owned business group RPSG.

To keep smaller bidders out of the race, the BCCI had made it mandatory for potential owners or their companies to have a turnover of more than Rs. 3,000 crore or more. In the case of a consortium, the BCCI had asked each investor to show a turnover of more than Rs. 2,500 crore.   

Earlier, media reports suggested that the tenders gave the potential bidders options to choose from around 8 to 10 cities from across India. Apart from Ahmedabad, Pune, and Kochi, the other cities in running for the two slots were Lucknow, Kanpur, Guwahati, Indore, Raipur, and Trivandrum.

Meanwhile, the 2022 edition won't be the first time where 10 teams would participate in the IPL. In 2010, two new teams- Pune Warriors India and Kochi Tuskers Kerala - joined the league before the fourth edition in 2011 and for a brief period. One year later in November 2011, it was announced that Kochi Tuskers Kerala side would be terminated following it "breaching" the BCCI's terms of conditions. Pune Warriors India had withdrawn from the IPL in 2013 over financial differences with the board.

(With inputs from agencies)

Image: IPL/BCCI