IPL : Pune and Rajkot chosen as the two new cities

Vivo-IPLNew Delhi , December 08 : The Board of Control for Cricket  in India today announced the names of two new cities for IPL season 9 . New Rising (Pune) and Intex (Rajkot) will be the new franchises in the lucrative Twenty20 championship.

Pune and Rajkot replace Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. Both teams, former IPL champions, were suspended by a Supreme Court appointed panel because their team owners – Gurunath Meiyappan (Chennai) and Raj Kundra (Rajasthan) — were charged with betting and sharing team information with bookies during the 2013 edition of the tournament.

BCCI  resorted to reverse bidding process while selecting the cities . The franchise that claims the least from the BCCI’s coffers (mainly earned from broadcast and sponsorship fees), wins. However, Sanjeev Goenka’s New Rising and Intex  did not ask for any BCCI assistance.

New Rising were the best bidder, offering to pay the BCCI Rs 16 crore annually . Intex were second best bidder , agreeing to pay the Board Rs 10 crore.

This was the first time the BCCI adopted a reverse bidding policy to ensure that the valuation of the teams did not below the base price of Rs 40 crore-a-side.

Interestingly, Chettinad Cement of Chennai were one of the unsuccessful bidders. The company is owned by a group led by ex-BCCI president AC Muthiah.

The new teams will now have the option to choose from the top five players each from Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. This will be decided during a players draft. The trading window will start on December 15.