The Board of Control for Cricket in India on 25th October, Monday, announced Lucknow and Ahemdabad as two new members of the IPL(Indian Premier League)2022. It is a newly formed franchise by Sanjiv Goenka the owner of RPSG Group, who won the bidding of 7090 crores and chose the Lucknow team.
Goenka told India today “As far as wanting players, everyone wants the best of the best, that’s not going to be possible because the existing franchises will have the rights to retain some of the players. We have to make do with what we have”.
The second newly formed franchise is Ahemdabad, owned by CVC Capital, farmer-owners of Formula One. They won the bidding of crores. The bidding took place at the Taj Hotel in Dubai
After the addition of these two teams, the next season of IPL is going to be a 10 team and 74 matches affair.
Sanjeev Goenka said that the IPL Franchise is going to provide all the resources on the matter of the availability of players for the T20 tournament, 2022.
For the seating capacity of over 55,000 seats and other facilities, Lucknow stadium is considered the best. The stadium is called Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium of Lucknow, it is one of the top best stadiums in the world for its best drainage system. It is an international standard cricket stadium owned by Ekana Sportz City.
Goenka added, “I am quite excited about this. UP is the biggest state in the country. The most populous state. We do believe there is a huge population in the state who is waiting to have a team. We do have operations there. We are fairly excited about it and it will be a furtherance of a business in UP which we are very keen on”.
Till date, there have been 14 seasons of the IPL. And the 15th season has a lot to unfold. It was last in 2010 when 2 new franchises joined the league before the 4th season, which was Pune Warriors India and Kochi Tuskers Kerela. Later in November 2011, Kochi Tuskers Kerela was terminated for breaching the BCCI’s terms and conditions. Then in 2013, Pune Warriors India withdrew from the IPL over financial differences with the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
Ganguly added, “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.”
