Now 10 Teams In IPL? BCCI Floats Tender To Introduce Two More Franchises From Next Season

Set to expand the league, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has started the process to introduce two new franchises in the next season of the much-followed Indian Premier League (IPL), reports Economic Times.

IPL's Governing Council (GC) yesterday (31 August) invited bids for franchises by floating an invitation to tender (ITT). Interested parties can buy the ITT for a non-refundable fee of Rs 10 lakh (plus taxes) till 5 October.

The base price for the new teams could likely be set at a steep Rs 1,700 crore or more.

Likely private sector players that can be participating in the bidding process includes names such as the Adani Group, Sanjiv Goenka-owned RPSG, Hyderabad-based pharma major Aurobindo Pharma, Ahmedabad based Torrent Group and also media veteran and entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala.

Of these, Goenka had earlier owned the Pune-based franchise -- Rising Pune Supergiants for two seasons- 2016 and 2017.

The cities of interest include the names such as Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Nagpur, Guwahati, Raipur, Visakhapatnam and Cuttack.