Ahmedabad and Lucknow to be the two new teams at IPL

Dubai, Oct 25: Ahmedabad and Lucknow will be the two new teams at the Indian Premier League (IPL). RP Sanjeev Goenka Group (RPSG) and CVC bought the two new franchises. RPSG paid Rs 7090 crore to buy the Lucknow franchise while CVC, a private equity fund, bought the Ahmedabad franchise for Rs 5625 crore. With the inclusion of two new teams, the total number of participating teams in the IPL has gone to 10. Earlier in the second week of October, the Governing Council of the IPL had issued tender to own and operate an IPL team. The new franchises will participate in IPL from 2022 season onwards subject to the bidders completing the post-bid formalities as specified in the ITT document. The IPL 2022 season will comprise ten teams and will have 74 matches, wherein each team will play 7 home and 7 away matches.  BCCI President, Sourav Ganguly said that the BCCI is happy to welcome two new teams from the next season of the Indian Premier League. I would like to congratulate RPSG Ventures Ltd. & Irelia Company Pte Ltd for being the successful bidders. The IPL will now go to two new cities in India viz in Lucknow and Ahmedabad. It is heartening to see the inclusion of two new teams at such a high valuation, and it reiterates the cricketing and financial strength of our cricket ecosystem. True to IPL’s motto of ‘Where Talent Meets Opportunity’, the inclusion of two new teams will bring more domestic cricketers from our country to the global stage. The ITT process included two interested bidders from outside of India, which strongly emphasises the global appeal of the IPL as a sports property. The IPL is proving to be a wonderful instrument in globalising the game of cricket. I am keenly looking forward to IPL 2022.