BEHIND THE NEWS
Adani for Ahmedabad
Sources close to developments have revealed that Gujarat based industrial house Adani Enterprises has bid for an IPl franchise. As revealed earlier by SportzPower, Anil Ambani owned ADAG is not believed to be bidding for the Ahmedabad based franchise since it is focusing on the entertainment business. As such it appears that Ahmedabad based billionaire Gautam Adani is front runner for the club side to be based out of Motera stadium.
It is reported that he has bid quite aggressively over the reserve price of $ 225 million. However, it is clear that Adani has bid in his individual capacity.
Similarly, Pawan Munjal of Hero Honda has also reportedly bid in his individual capacity though there have been rumours to the effect that he has bought the Kings XI Punjab franchise. This, however, has been denied by all the parties concerned.
The bids open on Sunday, 7 March, 1200 IST, after which the winners will b e announced. The number of teams will increase to 10 from the IPL's fourth season next year when 94 matches will be played.Something in the region of 30 expressions of interest have reportedly been delivered at the BCCI office. Others in the fray include Sahara Group, Videocon Industries through its bidding entity called P Sports Vision, ICICI Ventures, Jaiprakash Gaur owned Jaypee Infra, Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour and Rotana Group promoted by billionaire investor Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. Kumar Mangalam Birla is also reportedly in the mix, he too will be investing in his individual capacity. If Kumar Birla picks up a team, then he will join Mukesh Ambani and Vijay Mallya in an exclsuive industrialists A listers club which owns teams in the IPL.
Unsubstantiated reports have also speculated that Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan has thrown his hat in the ring. Bachchan may do a branding barter for equity in the franchise with Subroto Roy of Sahara.Other stars like Salman Khan, Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgn had also expressed interest in bidding for a franchise but the steep entry barrier of $ 225 million will definitely prove to be a deterrent. More than that, one of the stringent qualifying criteria is that the bidder has to have at least $1 billion (Rs.46 billion) and if a group makes a bid, it must contain an individual or a single party with that amount of money. This changes the contours of the bidding quality for only those with serious net worth can actually make the cut.
This is what seems to have put paid to Kerala's dream to field a team in the IPL with the ace film director Priyadarshan and actor Mohanlal team backing out from it. Their bid was reportedly in conjunction with the Muthoot Finance Group from the South Indian state.
Citing the reasons for withdrawal from the IPL, Priyadarshan's assistant told PTI over telephone that the change in rules, at a short notice, which stipulates about $ 1 billion as net worth for a team has come as a jolt.Earlier, speaking to a Malayalam television channel, Priyadarshan had said "the information regarding the change in rules was given at a short notice and it was extremely difficult to source funds for the same.""Even in a smaller bid, informations were passed on to the bidders much earlier. We do not know which vested interest was behind it and it was quite unfortunate," he added.As per the IPL's tender condition, the bidders should submit a Rs 4.6 billion bank guarantee to participate in the bidding process. What the $ 1 billion cut off does is bring in really wealthy players like Gulf based investors. This will revolutionise the IPL for it will make the event on par with the English Premier League where Russian oligarchs, steel baron L N Mittal and many wealthy Arab investors own teams. The true internationalisation of IPL is thus upon us.
No comments:
Post a Comment