The two new franchises for the IPL which will take part in the tournament from the 2011 edition of the tournament have been unveiled. The Sahara Group and the Rendezvous Group are the new owners of the two new teams, and they will have their bases in the cities of Pune and Kochi respectively.
The Sahara Group, which is the current sponsor of the Indian cricket team, had bid a sum of $370 million for three of the cities, Pune, Nagpur and Ahmedabad. They had to make a choice between the three after they won the bid and they went for Pune.
The other consortium, Rendezvous Group had made a bid of $333 million and won the right to own the city of Kochi. They are a virtually unheard of group and consist of Parini developers, Anand Shah Estate, Anchor Earth Private Limited and Film Waves.
The chief of the IPL, Lalit Modi, was obviously elated at the way the bidding went about and said that this was another proof that the tournament was recession proof. He added that he had not expected the selling price to be so high, saying that he thought it would be in the $300-$320 million range.
The base price set for the auctions was $225 million. In the previous auction for the teams in 2008, the Mumbai Indians were the costliest side with a price of $111 million.
Meanwhile, in the current IPL, the recent turn of events have meant that the Royal Challengers Bangalore have become the favourites to win the tournament; with Stan James offering 4/1 for their win. Mumbai share this top spot with them – 4/1 at Coral – while the Deccan Chargers, who also have three wins from their four games, are at 9/2 (Ladbrokes) to win the tournament.
Delhi Daredevils had begun the tournament with a bang when they won two successive games. However, the loss of Gautam Gambhir to injury and T Dilshan’s continual lack of runs have pushed them to the fourth position as favourites, and Blue Square offer 11/2 for their win. Dhoni’s injury means that Chennai is at 7/1 (Blue Square) to clinch the tournament.