MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India has reportedly set October 17 as the date for auction of the two new Indian Premier League teams that will make their respective debuts in the 2022 season of world cricket’s biggest and richest annual tournament.
Speaking to ANI, sources in the know of developments confirmed the same. “The bidding is set to take place on October 17 while queries regarding the same can be made till September 21,” the source said.
According to Cricbuzz, clarifications can be sought up to September 21, the ITT (Invitation To Tender) document will be available for purchase till October 5 and the auction will be held, most likely, on October 17.
What comes as no surprise to SportzPower is that transparency has been given the heave-ho in that there will be no e-auction and the BCCI has instead opted for a closed bidding process.
The Governing Council of the IPL had on August 31 invited bids to acquire the right to own and operate 1 (one) of the 2 (two) new teams proposed to be introduced to take part in the tournament from the 2022 season, through a tender process.
“The detailed terms and conditions governing the submission and evaluation of bids including eligibility requirements, process for submissions of bids, proposed new teams’ rights, and obligations, etc. are contained in the ‘Invitation to Tender’ (“ITT”) which will be made available on receipt of payment of non-refundable fee of INR 10,00,000 (Rupees Ten Lakhs Only) plus any applicable Goods and Services Tax,” the BCCI had said in an official release.
Regarding the financial requirements, the BCCI has made it clear that each bidder should have a net worth of Rs 25 billion and the company has to have a turnover of Rs 30 billion. In the case of a consortium, the BCCI will allow only three partners and one of them has to fulfil the above criteria of Rs 25 billion net worth and Rs 30 billion turnover. As has been reported, the base price is Rs 20 billion.
Cricbuzz further reports that there will be two stages for bidding – legal and financial. Once the legal department is satisfied with the bidder’s qualifying criteria, the financial bid will be opened. One can bid for two to six cities, marking the value one is willing to provide for each centre. Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Indore, Cuttack, Guwahati and Dharamsala are the cities available for bidding.
While quite a few parties, including some agencies, are believed to have bought the ITT document, the odds for new teams and owners clearly favour Ahmedabad with billionaire Gautam Adani as owner and the Lucknow franchise being purchased by Sanjiv Goenka of the RPSG Group.
