The bidding numbers for the two new IPL teams have left the cricket fraternity astounded, including legends such as Shane Warne and Michael Vaughan.
A total of 10 parties threw their hats into the rings to own the two franchises on Monday (October 25) in Dubai’s Taj Hotel. The bidders got to pick from six cities - Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Cuttack, Dharamsala, Guwahati, and Indore - to base their team in.
The RPSG Group secured Lucknow as their home base with a winning bid of INR 7090 crores while CVC Capital opted for Ahmedabad with a bid of Rs 5625 crores.
Taking to Twitter, Australia’s spin great Warne, who led Rajasthan Royals to the title win in the inaugural edition of IPL, wrote: “Wow ! Congratulations to both of the new franchise owners. Staggering amounts of money for each team & shows why cricket has become the 2nd most popular & biggest sport on the planet. $932 & $692 million dollars (USA). Well done to @SGanguly99 & everyone at the @BCCI on the @IPL.”
Amount spent for the two new franchises prompted former England skipper Michael Vaughan to say that the IPL is the ‘most powerful aspect’ of cricket now and fans will see more matches and longer tournaments in the league going ahead.
"With the 2 new franchises going for huge numbers it's now very clear the IPL is the most powerful aspect of game now .. It's inevitable that we will see more games & longer tournaments. #IPL," Vaughan tweeted.
The two new franchises will be a part of the IPL from the 2022 edition onwards. Before that, they will have to complete the post-bid formalities specified in the ITT document.
The IPL 2022 season of IPL will feature 10 teams and there will be a total of 74 matches in the cash-rich tournament with each team playing seven home and seven away matches.
