The Adani Group, based in Ahmedabad, and the Dhoot family of Pune are likely to be the highest bidders for the two new Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises up for sale.

Gautam Adani, the 48-year-old chairman of the trading and export company, whose personal wealth is believed to be valued
at $6.7b, has bid for the Ahmedabad franchise. Highly placed sources said the bid is in the $260-280m range.

TOI had first reported the interest shown by Adani, when he said “if it is Ahmedabad, I’ll be bidding for it.” The floor price for prospective bidders has been kept at $225m, which in turn suggests that the Adani Group is likely to offer a bid 25% higher. More »

MUMBAI: The two new franchises for the Indian Premier League’s 2011 season will be announced on March 7.

“Everyone is speculating many things. You will know (bidders) tomorrow,” IPL commissioner and chairman Lalit Modi said on Saturday while announcing the League’s first-ever branded merchandise tie-up globally with 130-yer-old Swiss watchmakers Bandelier.

The base price for the two new franchises, which would take up the number of teams in the IPL to 10, has been fixed at $225-million.

“We expect the winning bids to be around $300-million,” a top IPL source revealed.

The terms and conditions for the bidding process have been made stringent with each bidder having been asked to furnish a bank guarantee of $100-million along with their bid, the source said.

Talking about IPL’s merchandise branding tie-up with Bandelier, Modi said this was the first of many such deals which are in the pipeline. More »

NEW DELHI: A consortium led by consumer durables-to-oil and gas group, Videocon is understood to be in the race for the franchise rights of the Pune team for the Indian Premier League 2011 season with Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan as a likely partner.

According to sources, P Vision Ltd, a company owned by Videocon Group chief Venugopal Dhoot, along with two other Pune-based firms, may rope in Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan in running the Pune IPL team.

When contacted, Dhoot declined to comment. The sources said Videocon is leading the bid for the Pune IPL team as it meets the criteria of billion dollar turnover and upfront bank guarantee of Rs 430 crore, set by organisers of the domestic T20 league. More »

LONDON: England’s Cricketers’ Association claims that IPL commissioner Lalit Modi and the franchises are “bugging players like crazy” to commit participation in the lucrative Twenty20 event but are refusing to acknowledge their security fears.

Professional Cricketers Association (PCA) director of legal affairs Ian Smith said Modi, who had earlier claimed that “heavens won’t fall if international players refuse to come for the Indian Premier League (IPL)”, has been “bugging players like crazy” to commit.

Smith, however, said the security situation in India seems better then a few weeks ago but a some concerns still remain.

“The situation is a hell of a lot better than it was a week ago,” Smith said.

“I am cautiously optimistic that we can reach a point before the start of the tournament where Reg can say it is safe enough to travel. We are getting closer. Ultimately it comes down to individual players and their individual circumstances,” he added.

Smith said the firm handling IPL’s security was up to mark but the players’ bodies were looking for assurances from the government of India.

“They are excellent guys and it is a good plan. The question is whether the states and the Government can implement it. Have they not signed off because they can’t or because they won’t? Nobody is prepared to say, ‘Yes we can do it’,” Smith said.

Smith criticised Modi’s refusal to acknowledge players’ bodies’ concerns.

“It has been a most frustrating period because guys feel thwarted and partly angry because of the way Lalit has chosen to spin it as a political move on our part. We cannot seem to get it into his head that we are genuinely interested in the safety of the players,” he fumed.

Meanwhile, Graham Napier left to join Mumbai Indians on Monday, while Kings XI Punjab batsman Ravi Bopara, who had earlier claimed that “cricket is not worth dying for”, is scheduled to leave on Tuesday for the tournament starting March 12.

Source : Times of India

LONDON: It warned of mass withdrawals from the Indian Premier League but the Federation of International Cricketers Association now says such a scenario is unlikely to arise as IPL organisers have given fresh commitments on the security of players.

After the al-Qaeda threat against the event was deemed “not credible” by various security experts, FICA chief Tim May said IPL’s new promises would “certainly improve confidence in security”.

“This is a significant step forward. The more information you provide the players with, the greater the likelihood that they will attend the event,” May told BBC Sport.

After refusing to deal with players’ bodies all along, IPL commissioner Lalit Modi said he was ecstatic that “everybody is on the same page about the security arrangements”.

“This is very good news for us – I don’t think there will be any withdrawals at all. Already a lot of the players are on planes on their way to India and will arrive in the next few days,” he said.

Modi, who had earlier claimed that heavens won’t fall if foreign players refuse to come for the IPL, said security was paramount.

“Security is very important to us. We have not had to change our plans, I think it is more a case of the players now understanding them. I think they are more comfortable with the plans being implemented,” he said.

Meanwhile, May said after struggling to get information of security plans from the IPL in the past few weeks, some details are finally trickling in.

“We have a significant amount of information we did not have previously, which will assist players making far more informed decisions about whether to go or not,” he said.

“We haven’t reached utopia yet, but the new information has given us greater confidence. Last week we were operating in an information vacuum.”

Source : Times of India