Press Trust of India
New Delhi, Dec 8: The Sanjeev Goenka-owned New Rising consortium and mobile phone manufacturer Intex joined the high-profile IPL bandwagon Tuesday as Pune and Rajkot became the two new franchises, replacing the suspended Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) for a period of two years.
The Pune franchise was bought by Kolkata-based New Rising while the Rajkot bid was won by Intex Mobiles in the reverse bidding process in which the two teams were chosen. Goenka will shell out `10 crore per year to the BCCI while Intex Mobiles will pay `16 crore for the two-year deal.
“They won’t take a single penny from the BCCI. In fact they will pay the BCCI,” board secretary Anurag Thakur told reporters after a meeting of the IPL Governing Council (IPLGC) here.
The teams were sold through the reverse bidding process for which the base price was set at `40 crore and bidders had to quote an amount less than that. The lowest bidders were given the franchises.
The announcement of the two new franchises was made at a press conference in which BCCI president Shashank Manohar, secretary Thakur, IPLGC chairman Rajeev Shukla and representatives of the new teams were present. The board officials stated that both CSK and RR will return to the IPL after serving their two-year suspension.
The interim franchises, which were picked, will participate in a draft to first retain their share of players, December 15. Pune will get to pick the players first because they were the lowest bidders.
The other three bidders in fray were Harsh Goenka of RPG properties, Axis Clinical and Chettinad Cement, all of whom quoted higher bids than New Rising and Intex Mobiles.
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. The two new teams will have a minimum of `40 crore and a maximum of `66 crore to buy their players.
The cricketers who will remain unselected will go to general pool to be available for fresh auction, scheduled for February 6 in Bangalore. This effectively means that players like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja (CSK) and Ajinkya Rahane (RR) will be wearing different colours for the next two years.
