Posted on Friday, March 19, 2010 - 10:36 pm:

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ET again:

NEW DELHI: Big moolah events used to be a strict �no-no� for politicians who belong to parties that have the famous �common man� as their mascot.
But this unwritten code seems to have been breached with civil aviation minister Praful Patel and minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor becoming active back-room players in the bidding for two new IPL team franchisees on March 21.

Tharoor, who has been courting controversy with a vengeance, is learnt to be supporting the bid of a UP-based industrial house. But insiders say that there is some conflict between the two. While Tharoor wants to take the IPL to Kochi, the industrial house is keen on getting it for Delhi�s suburb, Noida.

Sources said Tharoor�s industrialist friends in the Gulf and Kerala are backing the UP-based company�s plans to become an IPL franchisee. Although the Congress refused to comment on reports of Tharoor�s interest in the IPL, there was distinct unease over his dabbling in extra-political affairs.

A group of individuals from the film industry led by Malayalam superstar Mohanlal and director Priyadarshan had attempted to bid for the Kochi team. But the stringent rules �Rs 4500 crore net worth of the bidder and Rs 460 crore guarantee from a PSU bank� came in their way.

The IPL had recently reworked the bidding conditions. Now the bidder has to produce a bank guarantee of $5 million and the deposit money has been brought down from 100 per cent of the bidding amount to 10 per cent. Jaypee Group and the Adanis will be participating in the bidding process on March 21. Adani is keen on the Pune team. Incidentally, Praful Patel has been a staunch supporter for a Pune IPL team.

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Posted on Friday, March 19, 2010 - 10:34 pm:

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Economic Times:

MUMBAI: An eclectic cast of businessmen and movie stars is likely to bid for the right to own two new teams that will take part in the nextseason of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Fourteen likely bidders, 12 of them new, have bought tender documents apart from the owners of the Videocon and Adani groups, which are widely believed to have almost won an earlier round that was cancelled on March 7. The IPL�s governing council will announce the winners this Sunday in Chennai.

Multiple sources familiar with the matter said the contest to own the IPL teams would likely be among five contenders�Sahara Group run by reclusive businessman Subrata Roy, the promoters of north-based Jaypee Group, the families running Videocon and Adani, and Pune-based builder Anirudh Deshpande.

A consortium consisting of actors Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Dutt and Suniel Shetty is also believed to have bought the tender documents.

One of the bidders believed to have been successful in the last round exuded confidence about the outcome this time around. �We are confident of winning the bid,� said Venugopal Dhoot, chairman of the Videocon group. Mr Dhoot is being backed by Bollywood stars Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor.

�The previous clauses had limited the potential of interested parties and the IPL governing council did realise that. Although only two of the 14 (who bought the tender) will win, we at least know that the remaining have the bandwidth to spend that money on cricket, which is good for the game,� said Shailendra Singh, joint managing director, Percept Holdings, the company advising a few potential bidders.

Interested IPL franchise owners will have to bid more than a $225-million base price, which is almost five times more than the $50-million floor price during the first round of team bidding in 2008. The two new teams will participate from the fourth season onwards. The city franchises up for bids include Nagpur, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Dharamshala, Indore, Cuttack, Gwalior and Visakhapatnam.

Potential bidders had raised concerns over the pre-condition clause of bidders having a net worth of $1 billion. The same concern was voiced by the governing council members and the president of the Board for Control of Cricket in India, Shashank Manohar, after the first tendering process received tepid response with just two strong contenders�Videocon Industries and the Adani group that had bid for Pune and Ahmedabad.

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