The cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) is all set to the addition of two new team from the next season and as per reports, not only Indian but also many foreign investors are showing immense interest in buying one of the two new franchises.
As per reports, the Glazer family, which owns many sports properties including the famous football club Manchester United and also owns the famous American football club Tampa Bay Buccaneers which features in the National Football League (NFL), has shown interest in owning an IPL franchise as it has picked up the bid documents for the new teams.
According to a report in the Times of India (ToI), the Glazer family has picked up the Invitation to Tender (ITT) document from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the purchase of one of the two new franchises.
Despite picking up the ITT document, there is no guarantee that the US-based company will make a formal bid for the franchise as it will have to first set up a company in India to do so because the ITT document says that a foreign entity will have to set up a company in India to make a bid.
Reportedly, the Adani Group, Torrent Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, Hindustan Times Media, Jindal Steel (led by Naveen Jindal), entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala and three private equity players have so far also picked the ITT documents.
Significantly, the deadline for the sale of ITT, the INR 10 lakh document, ended on Wednesday and the sale of the new franchise will be done in Dubai on October 25.
So far, around 20 parties have bought the ITT document.
Earlier on August 31, the IPL Governing Council had announced the release of tender to “own and operate” two new IPL teams, which will compete in the 2022 edition of the lucrative tournament.
Firstly, the date was extended to October 10 and later it was further extended by 10 days to october 20.
Significantly, the Indian board will make massive financial gain from the auction of two new franchises for which, a base price of Rs 2000 crore has been set for each franchise.
After auctioning the two new franchises, the BCCI will be receiving a huge amount of Rs 4,000 crore.
Before the auctions are held, the board has already clarified that any bids below the minimum amount of Rs 2000 crore will be directly rejected and no reduction will be made to the minimum bid amount even in the event of a change in the format of the league.
The condition applies even if the number of matches to be played gets reduced.
After the auction, the cash-rich IPL will feature of 10 teams and a minimum of 74 matches from the next 2022 season and further.
Significantly, six Indian cities, namely – Ahmedabad (Narendra Modi Stadium), Cuttack (Barabati Stadium), Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium), Guwahati (Barsapara Cricket Ground), Indore (Holkar Stadium), Lucknow (Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium) have been shortlisted for the auction.
As per reports, Ahmedabad and Lucknow are the frontrunners for hosting the two new IPL teams.