Ahmedabad and Lucknow are set to be the two new IPL franchises for the 2022 edition. The bidding process for the two new teams began today morning in Dubai with a total of ten parties submitting their bids to own and operate one of the two new IPL teams.
The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group and CVC Capital Partners won the ownership rights of the two new Indian Premier League franchises after the bidding process was concluded. The Goenka Group bagged the Lucknow team for Rs 7090 crores, while CVC got hold of the other franchise Ahmedabad for Rs 5166 crores.
Six cities were shortlisted to have their own teams which included the likes of Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Cuttack, Dharamsala, Guwahati and Indore. There were high profile bidders interested to be named as the owners of the newly formed IPL teams. Manchester United owners Glazer family, the Adani Group, Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Hindustan Media Ventures Pvt Ltd were also in the mix and submitted the bid for the two new IPL teams.
According to sources, all the parties were asked to submit their bids in two envelopes, one for personal and financial credentials, while the second one was for the bid. The BCCI had its legal and audits official check all the credentials and only after they were found to be in order, the second envelope containing the bids were opened.
The BCCI prior to this had extended the deadline day for “Invitation to Tender’, October 15 was the deadline, however, due to requests for the interested parties the date was extended till October 20. The conclusion of the bidding process has seen Goenka Group and CVC bag the rights to own and operate the two new IPL teams, which are Lucknow and Ahmedabad.
With the inclusion of the two new teams, the IPL 2022 edition will have 10 teams, however, this won’t be the first time, the 2011 edition also had the same number of teams. The number of matches is also set to increase from the current 60 to 74.