Pune and Rajkot have won the bid for the two new Indian Premier League(IPL) teams that will be replacing the suspended franchises Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals in the next upcoming two editions of IPL.
While Sanjiv Goenka, Chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group will own the Pune franchise, Intex Technologies India Limited bagged the Rajkot team. CSK and RR were suspended by Supreme Court earlier in the year as their respective owners were found guilty of betting in the famous T20 tournament. The two teams will be terminated once Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals have served their two-year bans.
The Board of Cricket for Control in India (BCCI) opened tenders for the same in the national capital in the afternoon. Only the two teams were announced on Tuesday, and their owners will get to buy 10 players on December 15.
While there are several world class players available for auctions from Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings – two franchises who were suspended for a two-year period from the tournament after a Supreme Court order, the first bidding in all likelihood will be of MS Dhoni – the former CSK skipper, who is probably the most valuable player in the tournament.
There is one interesting clause which says that the team with the lowest bid will have the first right to pick a player from the elite list of players from the two popular franchises.
Earlier, IPL’s governing council had decided to omit Jaipur and Kochi from the list of cities which will bid for new IPL teams on December 8.
BCCI Working Committee had decided to replace CSK and RR following the interim report of the Supreme Court-appointed Justice Lodha Committee on the spot- fixing and betting scandal in the IPL 2013.
In November, IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla had informed that the process to find new teams will begin after November 15 and interested parties can seek clarification till December 4.
According to the Times of India, the draft of the sale of the two new franchises and around 50 players from Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals is yet to be approved, which will happen likely in the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in November.
The two new franchises will be sold by the BCCI for only two years, and every cricket venue excluding those that have already been taken, will be up for grabs. This enables the new bidders to go for Chennai and Jaipur as well. There will be a base price for the bidders, and this is where the idea of ‘reverse bidding’ will occur.
Reverse Bidding
The report explained that the bidders will be allowed to bid lesser amount than what the BCCI has set as the base price. The lowest bidder for these franchises will be given the rights. The Indian cricket board will pay the winning party the bid amount that will help them to manage the operational costs.
Interestingly, the bidders can also quote in negative, and if someone quotes in negative, he or she will have to pay that negative amount to the BCCI. The board expects that it will be able to attract those who do not mind spending money for only two years, keeping the marketing and branding initiatives in their mind.