IPL 2022: The Indian Premier League (IPL) has been penned down for expansion in the next season. The BCCI has zeroed down to add two more franchises to the already existed eight to make the league even more exciting and competitive. This time, the board is aiming to assign the two new franchises to the completely Hindi speaking regions and Six cities have been shortlisted by the BCCI in that regard.
The tenders are already rolled out by the board and have invited the interested bidders to join the party. The final verdict on the two new franchises will be out during the business end of the IPL 2021, which is scheduled in the UAE.
As per the report of InsideSports, the BCCI is emphasising on cities such as Guwahati, Ranchi, Cuttack, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Dharamsala to be the possible new franchise from the next season.
Among these shortlisted cities, Ahmedabad and Guwahati are the frontrunners while the other cities mentioned also have a fair chance to get a franchise. The auction for the same is scheduled for next month with BCCI setting the base price at 2,000 Crores.
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The cricket board is quite interested in having a team from other North cities apart from Delhi and Punjab. A report of Star Sports reveals that nearly 65 per cent of IPL viewers come from the Hindi-speaking region and the addition of one or two new franchises from that part will add a few more per cent to the total viewership.
The same report for the ongoing India tour of England shows that the Hindi-speaking region covers up around 50 per cent total viewership for Star Sports.
“The BCCI is expecting anything in the range of 5000 crores if not more. There will be 74 IPL games next season and it’s a win-win situation for everyone. IPL teams are a great investment and have given the initial investors great returns. We don’t think the base price of 2,000 Cr is too much and we expect to get 3000-3500 Cr per team”, declared top BCCI official to InsideSport.co.
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