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The Indian Premier League, which suspended two of its high-profile franchises that were mired in controversy, selected Sanjiv Goenka’s New Rising and Keshav Bansal’s Intex Technologies as the interim franchise owners.
Goenka and Bansal won the Pune and Rajkot franchises, respectively, for the next two IPL seasons. Goenka bid ₹16 crore and Bansal ₹10 crore per annum.
The two teams will replace Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, suspended for two years due to the spot-fixing scandal.
The other three bidders were Chettinad Cements, Axis Clinical and Harsh Goenka-owned RPG Properties.
The auctions were conducted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India through a reverse bidding process. Bidders had to quote a lower figure than the reserve price of ₹40 crore (share of central revenue pool).
Addressing a press conference, BCCI President Shashank Manohar said five entities had submitted bids. “The two winning bids will increase the Board’s revenue by about ₹180 crore annually and for two years the Board will gain about ₹360 crore.”
Since the BCCI will not have to share the revenues of ₹70-75 crore earmarked as share of the central revenue pool for franchises each year, earning an additional ₹26 crore from the two franchises will be advantageous for the Board, he added.
Conflict of interest? On whether there is a conflict of interest as Sanjiv Goenka co-owns Indian Super League football team Atletico de Kolkata with Sourav Ganguly, who is also a Governing Council member, Manohar said: “ I believe there is no conflict of interest ….this has been a transparent bidding…conflict of interest arises when a person can influence the decision-making process.” He, however, added that the BCCI has appointed an independent ombudsman to look into potential cases of conflict of interest.
Keshav Bansal, owner of Intex Mobiles, said he expects to make profits by maximising revenue and minimising losses and that the firm will work on the commercials.
The IPL Governing Council also finalised April 9 to May 29 as the dates for the next edition of the League.
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