Not many days have passed when BCCI announced Lucknow and Ahmedabad as two new members of the IPL 2022. And now Lucknow and Ahmedabad are set to be formally included as part of the Indian Premier League family on February 11, Tuesday.
The IPL governing council will ratify the much-delayed formalities due to confusion over the legality of the Ahmedabad promoters.
Even after RPSG Group(₹7090 crores) and CVC Capital Partners(₹5625 crores) being announced as the owners of the Lucknow and Ahmedabad franchises respectively, the formalities have been delayed after doubts were raised over CVC Capital’s alleged involvement in the sports betting business.
Brijesh Patel, IPL governing council chairman told that it has been decided to release the Letter of Intent(LoI) to the Lucknow and Ahmedabad promoters after the governing council’s meeting which is to be held on August 11.
Which led to the BCCI consulting legal luminaries, including Tushar Mehta, the Solicitor General of India. The BBCI was advised that its initial diligence was correct, hence the BCCI office-bearers on Monday decided to award the Letter of Intent(LoI).
K.L. Rahul is among the frontrunners to lead the Lucknow franchise while Hardik Pandya is in talks with the promoters of the Ahmedabad team to be the face of the franchise.
While the existing eight teams have announced their retained players, the BCCI is likely to ask both the new teams to submit the list of their three pre-auction picks by Republic Day.
BCCI is hoping to stick to the plan of conducting the mega auction on Feb 12 and 13. It is understood that the governing council is likely to shortlist the Mumbai-Pune corridor, with four stadia, as the most feasible venue for the 15th edition, likely to begin on April 2.
