Pune, Kochi joins IPL bandwagon

On Sunday unveiled two new teams joining the cash-awash IPL Twenty20 league from the 2011 season and Sahara bagged Pune while little known consortium Rendezvous Sports World Limited clinched Kochi.

Sahara Adventure Sports Group made an identical USD 370 million bid for three cities - Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Pune, Rendezvous made the second highest bid and their offer of USD 333.33 million was enough to land the Kochi franchise.

Interestingly, these two new franchises were sold for an amount which, when combined, is bigger than the worth of the original eight franchises put together.

Apart from the two successful bidders, other groups which took part in the bidding were Adani Groups, VC Digital Solution (Videocon) and a Pune consortium.

The Videocon group apparently had the backing of Bollywood superstars Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor but they failed to bag a team.

The minimum base price of the franchises for the next 10 years was USD 225 million.

From 2011, IPL will become a 10-team league featuring 94 games.