The Sanjiv Goenka-led RPSG group has won the bid for Lucknow at approx INR 7000 crore, while private equity firm CVC Capital wins Ahmedabad at approx INR 5200 crore.
Follow Us
The two new teams who will be joining the existing franchises from the next edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) are finally out. Lucknow and Ahmedabad will be the cities marking the home bases of the franchises after the RPSG group and international investment firm CVC Capital won the ownership rights of the two new teams. The RPSG Group have picked Lucknow as their home base with a winning bid of INR 7,090 crores. CVC Capital have opted for Ahmedabad with a bid of INR 5,166 crores.
“It is good be back in the IPL and I am delighted. It is an initial step. We now have to build a good team and perform,” said Sanjiv Goenka, the owner of the RPSG in an interaction with ESPNcricinfo.
“A lot of planning and calculation has gone into our bidding. I give credit to personal staff for winning the bid,” he stated as quoted by Cricbuzz.
Goenka’s team will now move to Lucknow’s Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium. The venue was opened to the public only in November 2018 and can accommodate around 50,000 people.
CVC capital are an international conglomerate with offices throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas. They were previous stakeholders in Formula 1. CVC capital recently took a minority-stake in La Liga, the top-flight football league of Spain. Their home will be the world’s largest cricket stadium, the Narendra Modi Stadium. It has an advertised capacity of 1,32,000 people.
Goenka was previously the owner of IPL franchise Rising Pune Supergiant(s), who came into existence following a two-year ban handed to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) for 2016 and 2017. This side became the only other IPL team that MS Dhoni would end up playing for apart from CSK. Rising Pune Supergiant(s) came extremely close to winning the IPL in 2017. However, they were denied a triumph following a fine performance by Mitchell Johnson while representing Mumbai Indians (MI) in the final.
The bidding process for the two new IPL franchises began on Monday in Dubai. Ten parties submitted their bids to own a team at one of the six cities: Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Cuttack, Dharamsala, Guwahati and Indore. The owners of Premier League club Manchester United, the Adani Group, Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Hindustan Media Ventures Pvt Ltd, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, Capri Global and one Singapore based Irelia Company Pte Limited were some of the high-profile bidders involved.
All parties were asked to submit two envelopes. The first envelope was for personal and financial credentials, with the second for the bid. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had its legal and audit officials first check the credentials of the bidders. Only after they were deemed to be in order, were the second envelopes, containing the bids opened.
The 2022 edition will not be the first time the IPL will comprise 10 teams. It has been confirmed that the tournament format will follow the 2011 model, which scrapped the simple home-and-away format. The edition included a total of 74 matches (instead of the current number of 60). In the 2011 edition, the 10 teams were split into two loose groups, and the tournament comprised 70 league matches and four playoff games.
