New Rising, a consortium led by Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, bagged the Pune team while mobile manufacturers Intex made a successful bid for Rajkot in a reverse bidding process. Both the teams were suspended after a panel appointed by the Supreme Court, found that the owners of both the teams – Gurunath Meiyappan (Chennai) and Raj Kundra (Rajasthan) – had indulged in betting and sharing crucial team information with bookies in the 2013 season.
Advertisement
The new cities, which will feature in the IPL in 2016 and 2017, were chosen after a reverse bidding process in which a franchise that claims the least money from BCCI in terms of broadcast and sponsorship fees, wins. This meant the BCCI would pay a maximum of Rs 40 crore from its central revenue pool to the new owner.
BCCI senior official Niranjan Shah, who is also supremo of Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) was ecstatic that Rajkot has an IPL team and how BCCI will be richer after this deal. The two new teams will replace suspended Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR).
“Intex as a brand has been associated with cricket for a very long time”, director of Intex Technologies Keshav Bansal said after making the winning bid.
On Tuesday, five bids were finally submitted after more than 20 companies had showed initial interest by picking up application papers.
To the surprise of many, Chennai company Chettinad Cement was among the unsuccessful bidders.
The two franchises have been sold only for a period of two years, following which they will have to exit IPL, when Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals are eligible to return to the tournament’s fold.
Pune and Rajkot were today announced as the 2 new franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Advertisement
Players from CSK and RR will be divided into two groups of capped and uncapped and the top names will be sold through the draft system.
