New Delhi: In next two seasons of Indian Premiere League (IPL), Pune and Rajkot will replace Chennai and Rajasthan franchise which have bee barred for two years from the cricket T-20 league.
Industrialist Sanjeev Goenka's New Rising company has bought the rights of Pune franchise while the Rajkot franchise has been bought by Intex Mobiles.
These two franchises have been sold only for a period of two years, following which they will have to exit IPL, when Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals are eligible to return to the IPL.
New Rising bid minus 16 crore for Pune while Intex bid minus 10 crore for Rajkot through the reverse bidding process.
The auction process took place during the IPL governing council meeting in New Delhi headed by IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla.
In October, BCCI had decided that it would go with the Supreme Court-appointed Justice R M Lodha committee's recommendation of suspending the two teams for two years, making the next two IPLs an eight-team affair.
The Board invited fresh bids for two new teams, which will be competing from 2016 onwards to complete the eight-team format in the absence of CSK and RR.
In the recersse bidding process, the base price was set at INR 40 crore and bidders were allowed to quote an amount lesser than INR 40 crore.
BCCI will pay the winning party the bid amount that will partly cover for the franchise's operational costs heading into the tournament.
