The Board of Control for Cricket in India will be unveiling a tender document to sell two new IPL franchises in mid-August before going through the mandatory checks and opening a bidding process for the same in October, reported Times of India.
Since the Inida Premier League is now a multi-billion dollar industry, it is understood that some big-name business enterprises and firms are waiting to pounce on the opportunity when the national board releases their tender document.
As per the TOI report, four such prominent companies are eyeing one of two new IPL teams that are to be introduced in the league’s next year’s edition. The Kolkata-based RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, the Adani group, headquartered in Ahmedabad, Aurobindo Pharma Ltd from Hyderabad, and the Torrent Group from Gujarat are understandably keen for the bidding process to kickstart.
Not just them, other corporate entities and firms are also waiting to study the BCCI tender document and enter the race to individually or jointly own the two new IPL teams that will be introduced next year.
Apart from the bidding of new teams, the BCCI is also planning for an increase in the salary purses with which franchises can build their squad for IPL 2022. Currently, teams are allowed to spend a maximum of INR 85 crores at the auction table, but that will be enhanced to INR 90 crores in the mega auction, which will increase the financial pot available in the auction room by 50 crores across 10 IPL teams. The salary purse, of which the IPL teams must mandatorily spend about 75%, is likely to constantly increase till the 2024 season from 90 to 95 to 100 crores.
The retention system for players is also reportedly finalised, and the existing structure for the same may also undergo an important change. Teams experience a deduction of INR 15 crores, 11 crores and 7 crores if they retain three players before the auction.
They lose 12.5 crores and 8.5 crores on retaining two of their cricketers and let go of 12.5 crores upon keeping one player. This, however, could change because of the increase in teams’ salary purses.
“Some players may like the idea of not wanting to be retained and will want to head into the auction pool. That’s because there’s an increase in the salary purse and two new teams are being added. So, there’ll be a rush to grab talent. Expect some leading Indian cricketers to forward their names for the auction,”
TOI quoted those tracking developments as saying.
The BCCI is also planning a media-rights auction for the next rights cycle of the IPL, starting 2023. The auction could be held by the end of this year, with the Indian board and industry experts expecting a minimum of 25% increase in the media rights value. That, especially, as the IPL will have more matches and could be played in an expanded window starting March from 2023 onwards.
Post the bidding process, the selling of media rights is another important exercise for the BCCI. The Indian board will look to maximise the great interest around the IPL as the existing five-year deal with Star Sports comes to a close in 2022. While the TV rights will definitely go for a huge sum, the rise in the number of OTT platforms since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic could also have a major influence.
