Ahmedabad and Lucknow will be formally included as part of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after the two teams got clearance by BCCI. However, the formal clearance will be given to them only after a meeting of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council on Tuesday (January 11)."The two teams have been cleared and we will issue the Letter of Intent (LoI) after tomorrow's GC meeting. The teams are through by all practical purposes," IPL chairman Brijesh Patel told Cricbuzz on Monday. The CVC matter has been under scrutiny for quite some time - particularly for the company's association with a betting firm in the UK. Although the issue has been resolved in principle for quite some time now, the parties have not signed on the dotted lines.
The two news teams – Lucknow and Ahmedabad will make it a 10-team tournament, the RPSG group won the rights for the Lucknow franchise after a whopping Rs 7,090 crore bid and CVC Capital successfully bid with Rs 5,625 crore for Ahmedabad. Previously, the 8 existing Indian Premier League franchises had revealed the list of retained players ahead of the mega auction. Notably, franchises were allowed to retain a maximum of 4 players but not more than three Indian players and two overseas players. Meanwhile, the two new franchises – Lucknow and Ahmedabad – are given the budget of Rs 33 crore to pick three players before the auction but they cannot pick more than two Indian players and one overseas player. Star Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya is most likely to be appointed as the skipper of the Ahmedabad franchise for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022.
