New IPL teams to get heavyweight bid by Manchester United owners

With bidding for two new franchises in the Indian Premier League set to open on October 25, a number of heavyweight entities have reportedly shown interest in investing stakes. The walk-in event, which opens in Dubai on Monday, will see two new teams from a list of six Indian cities -- Ahmedabad, Cuttack, Dharamsala, Guwahati, Indore, and Lucknow.

According to a report from ESPNCricinfo, Lancer Capital, whose principal is Avram Glazer -- currently executive Co-Chairman and Director of Manchester United -- is one of the "22 business entities to have picked up bid documents" for the two new franchises.

The report also mentions Ahmedabad-based infrastructure company Adani Group, RPSG, Jindal Steel, Torrent Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma, and Hindustan Times Media as some of the notable bidders.

The bids were originally scheduled to open on October 17 but were delayed twice due to growing interest.

The 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League will mark the return of 10 teams to the competition for the first time since 2011. In that season, the teams were divided into two groups of five, with each team playing 14 games; twice against the remaining four teams in the group, once against four teams in the other group, and twice against the remaining team (on basis of a random draw).

In 2016, the BCCI added two new franchises to the tournament following the suspension of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, with teams from Pune (Rising Pune Supergiants) and Gujarat (Gujarat Lions) taking part for two seasons. Ahead of the 2018 edition, both teams were scrapped after Chennai and Rajasthan returned.

The report further states that BCCI have set a base price of INR 2000 crore for each of the two new franchises. It is required for the bidders to show a turnover of at least INR 3000 crore.