Pune, Rajkot become interim IPL franchises

The Sanjeev Goenka-owned New Rising consortium and mobile phone manufacturer Intex on Tuesday joined the high-profile IPL bandwagon as Pune and Rajkot became the two new franchises, replacing the suspended Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for a period of two years.

The Pune franchise was bought by Kolkata-based business tycoon Goenka’s company New Rising while the Rajkot bid was won by Intex Mobiles in the reverse bidding process in which the two teams were chosen.

Goenka will shell out Rs 16 crore per year to the BCCI while Intex Mobiles will pay Rs 10 crore for the two-year deal.

“They won’t take a single penny from the BCCI. In fact they will pay the BCCI,” Board Secretary Anurag Thakur told reporters after a meeting of the IPL Governing Council which also finalised April 9 to May 29 as the dates for the next edition of the League.

The teams were sold through the reverse bidding process for which the base price was set at Rs 40 crore and bidders had to quote an amount less than that. The lowest bidders were given the franchises.

The annoucement of the two new franchises was made at a press conference in which BCCI President Shashank Manohar, BCCI Secretary Thakur, IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla and representatives of the new teams were present.

The process was necessitated by the suspension of CSK and RR for the involvement some of their officials and co-owners in the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal.

However, both the CSK and RR will be allowed back in the league after serving out their suspension.

The interim franchises, which have been picked on Tuesday, will participate in a draft to first retain their share of players on December 15. Pune will get to pick the players first because they were the lowest bidders.

The other three bidders in fray were Harsh Goenka of RPG properties, Axis Clinical and Chettinad Cement, all of whom quoted higher bids than New Rising and Intex Mobiles. 

Players from CSK and RR will be divided into two groups of capped and uncapped and the top names will be sold through the draft system. The two new teams will have a minimum of Rs 40 crore and a maximum of Rs 66 crore to buy their players.

The cricketers who will remain unselected will go to general pool to be available for fresh auction, scheduled for February 6 in Bengaluru.

Intex will pick the second player and both teams will alternate thereafter.

For the ten players chosen, the BCCI has applied the same money brackets it put in place two years ago when the other six franchises were allowed to retain five players.

The first player gets Rs 12.5 crore, the second Rs 9.5 crore, the third Rs 7.5 crore, the fourth Rs 5.5 crore and the fifth Rs 4 crore. An uncapped player stands to earn Rs 4 crore if he is picked. Irrespective of the IPL fee agreed between the franchise and the retained player, a fixed amount will be deducted from the franchise’s salary cap per player retained.

All five bidders opted for more than one city from the nine available. The four bidders other than Intex all had Pune on their roster.

New Rising bid Rs minus 11 crore for Nagpur. Intex also bid for Nagpur and Visakhapatnam, but quoted Rs 10 crore for each of the two cities. Chettinad, meanwhile, quoted Rs 27 crore for both Pune and Chennai.

RPG bid Rs 17.88 crore for Pune and Rs 20.88 crore for Rajkot. Intex bid Rs 10 crore for both Kanpur and Visakhapatnam. Axis, meanwhile, quoted Rs 15 crore for both Nagpur and Kanpur and Rs 10 crore for Pune

The bidding process lasted for about an hour and was a two-part exercise: the first half involved determining the mandatory technical eligibility of the five bidders followed by a check on the the financial eligibility of the five bidders.

The BCCI also announced that the Franchise workshop will be held in Srinagar on January 13 and 14.

Appreciating the marvellous performance by India in the Test series against world number one side South Africa, the Board also announced an award of Rs 2 crores for the team. India blanked the Proteas 3-0 in the four-match series.