IPL global tendering for franchises begins Monday

Mumbai, Feb 21 : The Indian Premier League (IPL) Sunday announced that the Invitation to Tender document for the two new franchises will be available at the BCCI - IPL office at Cricket Center Mumbai from Monday, marking the start of global tendering process.

The Invitation to Tender Document will be available on payment of a Rs. 5 lakh Demand Draft drawn in favour of "The Board of Control for Cricket in India."

All bidding parties though will need to fulfill the eligibility criteria and other requirements specified in the Invitation to Tender, the IPL officials said.

The winning bids for the two new IPL franchises will be opened in Mumbai at 12:00 noon on March 7.

The two new IPL teams and their management teams will then get full access to IPL 2010 to better prepare them for IPL Season 2011.

The two new IPL franchises will also enjoy the same opportunity (if applicable and subject to qualification) to compete in each and any Champions League Twenty20 that is staged from 2011 onwards.

The IPL has also announced the names of 12 cities with cricketing infrastructure and stadia that will be eligible to invite bids for the two new franchises.

The cities eligible for inviting bids to be host cities of the IPL franchises are Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Kanpur, Dharamsala, Indore, Cuttack, Gwalior and Vishakapatnam. In addition to these cities Rajkot and Pune, with stadia already under construction and Baroda and Kochi, which will have new stadia going under construction will also be eligible.

A base price of US USD 225 million per franchise has been set for the two new franchises.