Even after acquiring the Ahmedabad franchise in the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL), CVC Sports is yet to receive the Letter of Intent from the the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), reports have suggested.
On October 25, Luxembourg-based CVC Capital Partners had bagged the ownerhsip rights of Ahmedabad franchise for Rs 5625 crores. However, with CVC Partners acquiring a 100 percent equity stake in Italian gaming and payments operator, Sisal Group S.p.A. (“Sisal”), the matter became controversial.
Although betting, which is legal overseas, has not been legalised in India and as a result, CVC’s acquisition of the Ahmedabad franchise raised many questions following which there has been a delay from the Indian board in handing the Letter of Intent to CVC. Significantly, the Letter of Intent has already been submitted to the RPSG Group of Sanjiv Goenka, who had bagged the Lucknow franchise for a whopping Rs 7090 crores.
As per reports, the CVC is now trying to convince the BCCI that its investment in betting firm, which has become a bone of contention, is not illegal. Moreover, few top CVC officials have flown to India to have talks with the BCCI office-bearers.
Meanwhile, the BCCI’s legal team is also monitoring and looking into the CVC files. It is likley that the team might form a committee to adjudicate on the issue.
After CVC had acquired one of the two franchise, former IPL chairman Lalit Modi ruffled a few feathers by drawing attention to the companies association with the Milan-based betting company Sisal.
“I guess betting companies can buy an IPL team. must be a new rule. apparently, one qualified bidder also owns a big betting company. what next? does BCCI not do their homework? what can Anti-corruption do in such a case? #cricket,” Modi had tweetd.
Private Equity player CVC Capital had recently bought LA Liga and also owns Formula One and Rugby teams.
Notably, as many as 10 parties had entered the bidding war on October 25 in Dubai and had got an option to choose from from six centres – Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Cuttack, Dharamsala, Guwahati and Indore – to base their team in.
All the interested parties were asked to submit two envelopes – one for personal and financial credentials and the second for the bid and the entire process was overseen by the IPL Governing Council as well as the BCCI top officials like president Ganguly, secretary Shah, treasurer Arun Dhumal, vice-president Rajeev Shukla and joint-secretary Jayesh George.
Now after acquiring the teams, both the parties will need to pay the entire amount over a period of 10 years.
Before the team auctioning, a total of 22 entities had bought the Invitation to Tender (ITT) document from the BCCI, price of which was kept at Rs 10 lakh each.
The new franchises – Ahmedabad and Lucknow – will now be a part of the 15th edition of the lucrative league, taking the total number of teams to 10 from eight.
The next edition of IPL is likley to be staged in the March-April window and a mega auction for it will most probably be held in December this year or January, 2022.