BCCI, on August 31, had invited tender for purchase of two new IPL teams and the 'invitation to tender' will be available till October 5.
With the mega-auction slated before the next year's edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) the BCCI has turned its attention to the sale of the two new teams, which will be added from the next season. Last week, the board invited the tender for the purchase of two new IPL teams and the 'invitation to tender' will be available till October 5.
Now reports suggest that the board has put forward six cities - Guwahati, Ranchi, Cuttack (all East), Ahmedabad (West), Lucknow (Central Zone), and Dharamsala (North) - as their options for the two new teams considering the zonal imbalance and business opportunities in mind.
The BCCI is aiming to take the cash-rich league to cities in the Hindi-speaking region more so in the north belt to keep the pan-India balance of the most popular franchise league in the world.
With Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad already representing three of the southern cities in the country, BCCI has now made it clear that no city from the south will be included anymore even though the likes of Vishakhapatnam and Kochi were in the fray, but the pending litigation with the ex-Kochi side (Kochi Tuskers Kerala) worked against them.
Also with 65 percent of the four billion minutes of viewership of the IPL coming from the Hindi region, the BCCI has gone the north, west and eastern way. Only Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings are from the northern region as Rajasthan Royals based in Jaipur are considered from the central zone according to cricket mapping, which is why the board is expecting the IPL to expand beyond the capital city Delhi and Punjab in the north.
Sony Ten 3, which is currently telecasting India's tour of England was the No 1 sports channel in the county as the channel fetched 50.4 percent of the total viewership of the ongoing India-England series compared to English's 10.6 percent and Tamil-Telugu's 0.4 and the rest from the live streaming on SonyLiv.
The auction for the two teams slated for next month will start from the base price of INR 2000 crore.
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