Finally, The BCCI revealed the names of the two new teams which will be part of the Indian Premier League from the 2022 edition of the cash-rich league. RPSG Ventures Ltd came up with the winning bid for a franchise from Lucknow while Irelia Company Pvt Ltd. (CVC Capital Partners) won the bid for a franchise from Ahmedabad.
RP Sanjeev Goenka Group (RPSG) bought the Lucknow franchise with a winning bid of INR 7090 crores while CVC Capitals laid claim to the Ahmedabad franchise with a bid of INR 5625 crores.
The IPL 2022 format will be similar to the IPL 2011 edition
The BCCI made it clear that there will be 74 matches in IPL 2022 and each team will play 7 home and 7 matches away from home. Notably, teams have been playing only 14 matches even in the 8-team league. So the number of matches for each team has not increased but the total has gone up by 14 matches from 60. The same game formats were used by the BCCI during IPL 2011 when it have 10 teams.
The ten teams were divided into two groups comprising five teams each. Each team had to play two games each against the ones in its group, then one game each against four teams in the other group, and finally two games against the remaining franchise.
The IPL 2022 season is expected to follow a similar format. The top two from the points table will qualify for the playoffs that including Qualifier 1, Eliminator, Qualifier 2, and the final.
BCCI President, Sourav Ganguly said: “The BCCI is happy to welcome two new teams from the next season of the Indian Premier League. I would like to congratulate RPSG Ventures Ltd & Irelia Company Pte Ltd for being successful bidders. The IPL will now go to two new cities in India viz in Lucknow and Ahmedabad. It is heartening to see the inclusion of two new teams at such a high valuation, and it reiterates the cricketing and financial strength of our cricket ecosystem. True to IPL’s motto of ‘Where Talent Meets Opportunity, the inclusion of two new teams will bring more domestic cricketers from our country to the global stage. The ITT process included two interested bidders from outside of India, which strongly emphasizes the global appeal of the IPL as a sports property. The IPL is proving to be a wonderful instrument in globalizing the game of cricket. I am keenly looking forward to IPL 2022.”
Notably, the mega auction for the IPL 2022 will be held later this year in December.
