The Indian Premier League (IPL) has unveiled two new teams for the competition, with the Lucknow and Ahmedabad franchises sold for a combined close to 2 billion dollars in Dubai on Monday
Kucknow and Ahmedabad will now compete in the competition from the 2022 edition, which will have 10 teams and 74 matches, each side playing seven home and away games each.
The current eight-team model features a total of 60 games, also made up of seven home and seven away games per side plus the finals.
The news comes ahead of the upcoming ‘mega auction‘, where the majority of players will be added to the pool of available talent for franchises to bid on.
The league had approved a proposal in December to add two franchises to the world’s richest T20 league, which has an estimated brand value of $US6.8 billion.
There were seven other bidders for the two new franchises that also included the the Glazer family, that owns Manchester United.
“It is heartening to see the inclusion of two new teams at such a high valuation, and it reiterates the cricketing and financial strength of our cricket ecosystem,” BCCI President, Sourav Ganguly said.
” … the inclusion of two new teams will bring more domestic cricketers from our country to the global stage.”