The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is expecting around 12 potential bidders to come to the table when the bids for the two new IPL franchises will be opened at a walk-in event at The Taj, Dubai, on Monday morning.
A total of 22 business entities have picked up the Invitation to Tender (ITT) documents though not all are expected to come to the bidding table. The new teams will be a part of the IPL from 2022 and have to be based in any two out of six cities listed in the tender document — Ahmedabad, Cuttack, Dharamsala, Guwahati, Indore and Lucknow.
A senior BCCI official told The Telegraph that they are expecting “a bidding war” and to sell each of the two new franchises in the range of Rs 4000-4500 crore. The base price for the team at the auction has been fixed at Rs 2000 crore.
The announcement of the new franchises is expected on Monday itself or within a day or two depending on how soon the technical evaluation of the successful bids are done.
October 20 was the deadline to pick up the ITT document at a price of Rs 10 lakh.
The Calcutta-based RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, the Naveen Jindal-owned Jindal Steel, which has business interests in Odisha, Torrent Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma, Hindustan Times Media and the Kotak Group are among the top Indian corporate houses which have picked up the ITT floated by the BCCI.
Lancer Capital, which has Avram Glazer, the executive co-chairman at Manchester United Football Club, as principal, and CVC Capital, which has stakes in Formula 1 and the Six Nations Rugby tournament in Europe, have also picked up the ITT document.
The last person to purchase the ITT was South Africa businessman Rajesh Gupta. The ITT allows foreign institutions to submit the bid on the condition that if they win, they will have to set up a business entity in India.
“Picking up the ITT is no guarantee that they will come to the bidding table. It helps companies to gauge BCCI’s future plans,” said a senior official.
A company which has an annual turnover of Rs 3000 crore will be considered an eligible bidder. A consortium of three or more entities will also be allowed provided each have a personal net worth of Rs 2500 crore.
The names of Bollywood power couple Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone, representing a foreign investor, have been doing the rounds. “There’s no confirmation but they could be minority stakeholders or brand ambassadors for one of the interested parties. In the past too, Bollywood celebrities have represented franchises on the bidding table,” said someone in the know of things.
This will be the second time the RP-Sanjiv Goenka group will sit on the bidding table after having owned the Pune-based Supergiant for two years. They also own the Calcutta football team ATK Mohun Bagan.
The two cities which are in pole position for the bids are Ahmedabad and Lucknow. While Ahmedabad has the largest cricket stadium in the world which can accommodate 1.32 lakh spectators and is named after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lucknow has revamped its infrastructure in the form of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium (also called the Ekana Cricket Stadium).
In the 10-team format, the BCCI is contemplating doing away with the home and away scenario and instead divide the teams into two groups.
It will result in 14 league matches for each franchise and 74 overall.