The RPSG group owned by Sanjiv Goenka has finally won the franchise of Lucknow by bidding for over ₹ 7000 crores. While on the other hand, the private equity firm, CVC capital, has the Ahmedabad franchise by bidding over ₹ 5000 crores. The official announcement regarding the bidding was made by BCCI on Monday.
This process of identifying the two new IPL franchises was held by the BCCI, which was conducted in Dubai. And with this, BCCI will add two more teams and will expand the 2022 tournament to 10 teams. Sourav Ganguly the President of BCCI said in a press release and was quoted, “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.”
Sourav Ganguly then further added to his statement, “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 emphasizes the global appeal of the IPL as a sports property. The IPL is proving to be a wonderful instrument in globalizing the game of cricket. I am keenly looking forward to IPL 2022.”
Well, according to the reports, The RPSG Group picked Lucknow as their home base with a winning bid of Rs.7,090 crore approximately. On the other hand, CVC Capital opted for Ahmedabad for their home base with a bid of Rs.5,166 crore. The franchise aspirants were given a choice to pick from six cities—Cuttack, Dharamsala, Guwahati, and Indore being others.
Talking about the process, firstly, the potential franchises had to submit all the details of their financial and personal credentials. Then BCCI’s legal and audit officials checked the credentials of the bidders, and only then opened the second envelope containing the bids, according to the reports of the cricket website Cricbuzz.
The last team to join IPL via a tender process in 2012, Sunrisers Hyderabad, had paid Rs. 850 crores. This time, The base price for the new team was fixed at Rs. 2,000 crore. The tender document was bought by a total of 22 entities.
While the Indian cricketing spectrum usually expected the Adani Group and the Glazers, the owners of English football club Manchester United, to buy the two new IPL franchises, it came out shocking for all as RPSG Enterprises and CVC Capitals emerged as the surprise winners. Especially for CVC Capitals, who are not known in the Indian sporting spectrum, this move made by them comes as a great surprise. As it is the first time CVC Capital has bought a cricketing venture, well, CVC Sports have already invested thoroughly in different kinds of sporting leagues all across the world.
Small information about CVC Capital and RPSG Enterprises:
CVC Capital Partners is a private equity and investment advisory firm. It is based in Luxembourg. CVC Capital is known to have invested in other sports across the world, including the Spanish La Liga, Formula One, Premiership Rugby, Six Nations Rugby, and more.
RPSG Enterprises is a Kolkata-based company that is not new to the world of IPL. At the time when Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) were suspended from the T20 league for their alleged involvement in the 2013 betting scandal, it was at that moment RPSG came up with a franchise named Rising Pune Supergiant for two years (2016 and 2017).
