IPL to have 10 teams from 2022

Cuttak, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Guwahati in fray to join.

The BCCI has opened invitations for tender for two new IPL franchises. The country’s official governing body has put a base price of INR 2,000 crore for the new teams of the Indian Premier League. The current eight-team tournament will see an addition of two additional teams from the 2022 edition, as it was announced by the BCCI post their recent governing council meeting.

The BCCI has also stated that the interested bidders can only have on bid document, which is reported to cost around INR 10 lakh, and can opt to own only one franchise. The bidders are also required to buy the tenders by October 5, 2021.

Amongst the franchisee options, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Guwahati and Cuttack are the likeliest cities from which the two additional teams might come. A senior BCCI source spoke to PTI, stating: “Earlier top brass was thinking about keeping the base price for two new teams at Rs 1700 crore but later it was decided to keep the base price at Rs 2000 crore. The BCCI is expecting anything in the range of 5000 crore if not more. There will be 74 IPL games next season and it’s a win-win situation for everyone. I think more than three business entities won’t be allowed to form a consortium but if three businesses come together and wants to jointly bid for a team, they are welcome to do so.”

The scenario of 10 teams is something that is not new to the IPL. The BCCI can look back to their 2011 format when there were 10 teams (Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Pune Warriors India). The BCCI, though, ruled out the 94-game scenario which happened in 2011 but the most likely option now is to have a total of 74 matches and do away with the current ‘home and away’ system and also reintroduce the ‘four playoff games’ format. If we do revise back to the old format, we could end up having two groups of five each, which would be decided by a random draw. It remains to be seen which avenue the BCCI take.

Sanjiv Goenka’s RPSG Group, who enjoyed two years in the IPL under the guise of Rising Pune Supergiants, are favourites to get back into the league, although reports suggest this time they could be eyeing up the Lucknow franchise. Along with the RPSG Group, the Adani Group, which is based out of Ahmedabad, is also a likely investor.

This will be the first time the BCCI will allow bids for new franchises since 2015, when Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiant were added to the IPL team list following the two-year suspension of the Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals.