Just In: 2 New IPL Teams Announced; Lucknow And Ahmedabad To Be Inducted

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the induction of 2 new IPL teams which will be a part of the Indian Premier League from IPL 2022. Notably, the 2 new franchises which have been added to the current 8-team setup are Lucknow and Ahmedabad, the two cities, who were the front runners until now.

Presently, there are a total of 8 teams participating in the Indian Premier League. These include Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Delhi Capitals (DC), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Mumbai Indians (MI), Punjab Kings (PBKS), Rajasthan Royals (RR), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), and SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH).

BCCI Adds 2 New Teams To The IPL Setup

The 2 new franchises that have been instilled into the league are Ahmedabad and Lucknow. A private equity CVC company has bid the highest amount as per the reports which are close to INR 5200 Crores. For the Lucknow franchise, the Sanjeev Goenka group has bid the highest amount of close to INR 7200 Crores.

These new franchises will now be a part of the 15th edition of the IPL which is slated to take place next year in the March-April window. A mega auction will be held in the month of December and now there will be a lot of deliberations by the franchises as to who should be retained and who should be released.

IPL 2022 Mega Auction To Be Held In December

The mega auction for the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League, IPL 2022, will be held later this year in December. It will add to a lot more permutations and combinations because as per the latest reports, a franchise is set to be allowed to keep up to three Indian and two foreign players with the total number of retentions not exceeding four. There may also be a cap on retaining uncapped players – a team will not be allowed more than two.

In the IPL 2022 Mega Auction, the player purse will be INR 90 crore, and in the subsequent two years, there will be an incremental hike and the purse will go up to INR 95 crore and INR 100 crore. If a franchise retains four players, it will have to spend around 40-45 per cent of its purse, leaving it INR 36-40 crore lesser than the franchise that doesn’t opt to retain any player.

The two new teams can also pick 2-3 players outside the auction with permission to take two foreign players if big Indian names are not available. It is unlikely the existing teams will be allowed the Right to Match (RTM) cards at the auction.