Lucknow and Ahmedabad officially announced as new IPL franchises

The BCCI have confirmed that Lucknow and Ahmedabad will be home to the two new IPL franchises that will come into existence from the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League, and the franchises will be owned by the RPSG Group and CVC Capital Partners respectively. 

The board held a bidding process earlier in the day, in which over 20 groups participated, but with bids worth INR 7090 crore crore and INR 5625 crore respectively, it was the The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group (Lucknow) and the CVC Capital (Ahmedabad) who outbid the rest to claim ownership of the two new franchises.

“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 the 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,” the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly said in an official statement.

“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 emphasises the global appeal of the IPL as a sports property. The IPL is proving to be a wonderful instrument in globalising the game of cricket. I am keenly looking forward to IPL 2022.”

Meanwhile, Brijesh Patel, Chairman of the IPL, said that the interest the bidding process garnered ‘proves that IPL is among the most sought-after sporting leagues in the world.’

“The level of interest among the interested parties prove that IPL is among the most sought-after sporting leagues in the world. We had bids from different parts of the world and from parties with diverse portfolios wanting to make a foray into the world of sports. I extend my heartiest congratulations to RPSG Ventures Ltd. and Irelia Company Pte Ltd. for securing the rights to operate the two teams. We had a wonderful 14th season and the 2022 season will see a new beginning,” Patel said.

Notably, the RPSG group previously owned the Rising Pune Supergiant franchise, which reached the final of IPL 2017. CVC, meanwhile, recently became a business partner of La Liga.