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Mumbai : Barely two years ago, when Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd made the highest bid for an Indian Premier League franchise (Rs 441 crore for Mumbai), many termed it as a gamble on a risky concept.
The IPL sure has come a long way in a short time, with the Sahara group on Sunday bidding Rs 1,702 crore for Pune and Rendezvous Sports World forking out Rs 1,533 crore for Kochi. In fact, these two bids, worth a total of about Rs 3,235 crore, add up to more than the Rs 2,853 crore collectively paid by the existing eight franchise owners in the first auction, on January 24, 2008. The IPL is invariably full of surprises and Sunday was no different. Favourites Adani Group and VC Digital (Videocon Group) were pipped by Sahara and a consortium of real estate players and businessmen brought together by Union minister Shashi Tharoor under the banner of Rendezvous Sports. The two new teams will become part of IPL in the 2011 edition. The franchises will be valid for 10 years.
The bidding, conducted behind closed doors, lasted less than an hour after the contenders trooped into a hotel in Chennai. The base price for each team was $225 million, more than four times the rate at which the first IPL auction began in 2008. IPL commissioner Lalit Modi said five eligible bids were received in all, which included Rendezvous Sports, Sahara, Aman Vohra, Adani and VC Digital. There was a dash of glamour with Salman Khan and Saif Ali Khan dropping in to represent some groups. Sahara topped with a $370-million (Rs 1,702 crore) bid for a clutch of cities which included Ahmedabad, Nagpur or Pune. Eventually, the Subrata Roy-controlled group opted for Pune.
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