Bids for new teams to be opened today

This will be the second attempt to find new teams as the March 7 auction had to be cancelled when the proposed buyers objected to bidding guidelines.

Earlier, Groups with a net worth of USD 1 billion were allowed to be part of the process and that too with a bank guarantee of USD 100 million.

But now as per the relaxed conditions, the buyers are to choose from eight cities -- Pune, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Nagpur, Indore, Cuttack, Gwalior and Visakhapatnam -- with an advance deposit of USD 10 million.

The base price for each new franchise would be USD 225 million.

The BCCI sources said 13 companies had bought the bid document and five bids were received by the cut-off time which ended yesterday evening.

"The auction could not be held earlier but this time we are sure of opening the bids to find out the largest bidder. But it is likely to take time since the IPL Committee need to peruse the documents and financial standing of the winners before being made public," one source said.

It has been learnt that Sahara Group, Jaypee Group, A Pune Consortium of Cyrus Poonawla, Videocon and Maharashtra Cricket Association President Ajay Shirke are in fray.

The bids will be opened tomorrow morning and results may be announced in the evening.
The successful bidders will be given 48 hours to pay 10 per cent of their bid price.