All you need to know about the 2 new IPL teams
Despite two major IPL franchises Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals remaining suspended for 2 years, the world’s biggest T20 league will still remain an 8-team affair. This has been made possible courtesy a team auction conducted by the BCCI on 8 December 2015 where two new franchises, Pune and Rajkot, became part of the IPL bandwagon.
The Pune and Rajkot franchises will be serving as replacements for the two tainted franchises who faced suspension in lieu of the 2013 spot-fixing and corruption scandal which rocked the IPL. Here is a look at all that you require to know about the latest joinees in the Indian Premier League:
Owners
The ownership of the Pune franchise lies with the New Rising consortium led by Sanjiv Goenka of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group. On the other hand, the franchise for Rajkot will be owned by Keshav Bansal, director of mobile and electronics manufacturer Intex Technologies.
Bidding amount
A unique reverse bidding process was applied during the team auction under which the bidders had to bid for an amount lower than the 40 crore base price set by the BCCI. Both New Rising and Intex placed negative bids of INR 16 crores and 10 crores respectively, with the former’s bid for the Pune franchise being the lowest.
This means that Pune will be paying 16 crore to the BCCI each year for 2016 and 2017, whereas the Rajkot franchise will be paying 10 crore per annum for their two year tenure.
How the teams will be formed
The process of building the respective teams of the two new franchises will begin with the draft that is due to be held on 15 December 2015. This draft will feature 5 top players each from the suspended franchises, Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals.
This pool of 10 players will then be divided into five groups and the two teams will be picking one player each from all the groups. While INR 12.5 crore will be paid to the first name picked by each team in the draft, the other four picks will receive INR 9.5 crore, 7.5 crore, 5.5 crore and 4 crore respectively. Owing to their lowest bid, Pune will get the distinct advantage of picking the very first player in the draft.
The remaining players from the franchises facing suspension will be part of the main player auction, which will be held on 6 February 2016, alongside the players released by the other six franchises. At the main auction, both Pune and Rajkot will have a purse ranging from a minimum of INR 40 crore and a maximum of INR 60 crore for purchasing players.
Players who could represent the two teams
The players draft that will happen for the new IPL teams on 15 December 2015 throws open the possibility of some big players to represent either of them. While MS Dhoni may be the biggest name to be part of Pune or Rajkot in the 2016 IPL, there are a number of other Indian and international stars in the fray.
From the Chennai Super Kings roster, there are high chances of players like Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Suresh Raina and Brendon McCullum playing for one of the teams. On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals players such as Ajinkya Rahane, Steven Smith, Shane Watson and James Faulkner could turn up for either of the two franchises.
The buzz about the two new franchises joining the IPL is only going to grow even more as the ninth season of the IPL approaches nearer. More information on the two teams will be revealed in the coming days and one will have to wait and watch.