Sahara, Rendezvous Sports win IPL franchises

Chennai, Mar 21 : Pune and Kochi have become the latest teams to join the glamorous Indian Premier League (IPL) with Sahara and Rendezvous Sports World winning the rights for the two new franchises.

Post a successful global Franchise Invitation to Tender process, the IPL on Sunday unveiled the names of its two new official franchises for IPL 2011.

According to Lalit Modi, Chairman and Commissioner, IPL, a fair and transparent bid process saw Sahara Adventure Sports and Rendezvous Sports World emerge winners for the exclusive franchise rights for the hottest sports league in the world.

The rights for the Pune franchise were won by the Sahara Adventure Sports - a part of the Sahara Group with a winning bid of USD 370 million ( Rs 1702 for 10 years), which was also the highest.

Sahara had bid similar amounts for three cities namely Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Pune and finally selected Pune as the host city for the new franchise.

The second winning bid was from a consortium named Rendezvous Sports World who won the Kochi franchise with a bid of USD 333 million (Rs 1,533.32 crore).

The level of interest in acquiring the two new franchises can be gauged by the fact that bids were received from five prospective franchises post an Invitation to Tender, including the Adani Group and VC Digital Solution (Videocon).

IPL chairman Lalit Modi said, "We are absolutely delighted by the overwhelming response to our global Franchise Invitation to Tender process. As you can see the bidding for the two new official Franchises has been fair and transparent and is indicative of the revenue earning potential that the Indian Premier League represents."

"I am also certain that the IPL fans in Kochi and Pune would be particularly excited with an IPL franchise for their respective cities. Given the high quality of franchises that we have selected, we are certain that both the new franchises will do everything in their power to ensure good competitive teams for next year," he said.

"All the bids received were of a very high standard and we would like to thank all of the organisations for their participation."

On winning the Pune franchise Abhijit Sarkar of Sahara Adventure Sports said, "The IPL is undoubtedly the most ground breaking international sports development in living memory."

"There is no precedent for what has been achieved by Lalit Modi and the BCCI over the last three years and the Sahara group is immensely proud to have won the Invitation to Tender from Pune."

"I can promise the people of Pune - a team they will be proud of in next year's IPL 2011. I would like to thank Mr. Modi and the BCCI-IPL for running a very transparent process to allocate the Franchises. All of us within Sahara Adventure Sports just cannot wait for IPL 2011 to commence."

Shailendra Gaikwad of Rendezvous World Sport further added, "We have closely been following every development within the Indian Premier League right from the inaugural year.

"Today, I am very happy for our consortium of Rendezvous World Sport and the people Kochi as we finally have a team to call our own in this amazing city based sports franchise."