Reports: CVC Capital's IPL participation clear, official announcement from BCCI expected soon

The Indian Premier League is up for some massive changes in the next edition. The addition of two new teams was the first step on this journey. Now, the ten teams would move towards the mega auction, which is expected to be the biggest in IPL’s history.

During the team auction, Sanjiv Goenka’s RPSG group bought the Lucknow franchise for INR 7,090 crores. CVC Captial, an American company bagged the Ahmedabad franchise for INR 5,625 crore. BCCI gave the clearance to the RPSG group immediately and a Letter of Intent was submitted. However, CVC Capitals didn’t get approval from the board.

The decision over CVC Capitals was pending after BCCI appointed an external panel to investigate CVC’s alleged investment in betting companies outside India. The three-member panel consisting of Justice KS Radhakrishnan has submitted its report. According to a report published in Cricbuzz, IPL Governing Council and BCCI have cleared the participation of the American company.

“An opinion on CVC was sought by the BCCI. The panel has given its opinion. The committee’s involvement ended once the opinion was given. Now it is up to the BCCI to accept or reject it,” a source in direct knowledge of this development said as quoted by Cricbuzz.

IPL Auction on February 12 and 13

The final decision on the future of CVC Capitals is lying in the hands of BCCI. The GC and the board officials had a discussion on the same in a meeting on December 26. The report mentioned that the office bearers have already cleared the American company and an official announcement might be done in the next few days.

The report further mentioned that the governing council has decided that the IPL 2022 auction would take on February 12 and 13. Also, an external agency KPMG might be hired to advise the board regarding the media rights deal. The board is yet to decide whether to go for closed bidding or e-auction for the media rights which will start from the 2023 edition of the league.

The two new teams are yet to submit their list of players signed outside of the auction. The first deadline of this announcement was December 25, which has already expired. The board might announce the second deadline in the next few days. The board also has time until December 31 to complete second due diligence on the two new companies, if required.