MUMBAI: And… All bets are on the two new Indian Premier League franchises being based out of Ahmedabad and Lucknow respectively. Surprise? Not at all. But this “revelation” was provided to NDTV on Friday by sources close to the bidding-process. Fact is, the only real surprise for most in the industry will be if the two new teams are NOT based out of these two cities.
Coming to real surprises. The names of Bollywood power couple Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone cropping as reportedly having picked up the Invitation To Tender (ITT) document floated recently by the Indian cricket board is most certainly so. Still at Rs 1 million, purchasing the ITT document is no big deal. Winning a bid? Now that would be an all out eye-popping surprise development if it were to happen.
Winning bids could be anywhere between $375 to $425 million per team for a 10-year license. What does this mean? BCCI will make anything between 3000-3500 Crores per team.
If this deal does finalise (though still the longest of long shots), the couple will not want for company. Kolkata Knight Riders is co-owned by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla while Preity Zinta has a minority stake in Punjab Kings.
“The Adani Group and the RP-Sanjeev Goenka Groups are no more the ‘favourites’ to walk away with the new teams. There are some serious bidders willing to spend money on the world’s most lucrative T20 cricket league,” a top official involved with the bidding process told Outlook magazine.
“The BCCI is not keen to give the rights to an off-shore company and will prefer Indian buyers but power equations can change the script dramatically,” said source told Outlook about the bid.
Whatever the official may have told the magazine, for SportzPower, about the closest to a “dead cert” at this juncture is Indian multinational conglomerate Adani Group tipped to bid (and win) the franchise from Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat and home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Other than Adani, RPSG and Ranveer-Deepika, the other parties who have picked up the bid document for the two new IPL franchise are the Glazer Family (owners of English Premier League giants Manchester United, Aurobindo Pharma, Torrent Pharma, Jindal Steel (led by Naveen Jindal), Hindustan Times Media, entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala, Kotak Group, an unnamed Singapore Based PE Firm, CVC Partners, Broadcast & Sport Consulting Agency ITW and global media investment company GroupM.
The ITT floated by the BCCI, one that has called for closed bids to be submitted by 20 October second deadline extension), has some strict clauses. Potential bidders have to have an average turnover of Rs 30 billion or a personal net worth of Rs 25 billion to be eligible to bid, according to a BCCI statement.
The average turnover clause was recently reworked by the BCCI after certain potential bidders made a specific request to lower the value in order to meet the eligibility criteria.
Indore, Cuttack, Guwahati, and Dharamsala are the other four cities for which potential owners can bid for one of the two new franchises that will compete in the 2022 IPL onwards.
The formal announcement is expected to be made on the October 26th and the bids will be submitted in the UAE, where the T20 World Cup 2021 is going on.
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