IPL Team Auction: Lucknow & Ahmedabad To Be The New Additions, Auction Price Touches 7000-Crore Mark

With the heavy suspense built around the auction of two new teams, we finally have the confirmation that Ahmedabad & Lucknow will be the new teams participating in the Indian Premier League from next season. 

There were a lot of rumours & speculation that Adani Group would buy the Ahmedabad Franchise & Manchester United owners would buy the second team, but all of this has been put to rest, as RP-Sanjiv Goenka group bought the Lucknow franchise for a whopping Rs. 7,090 crore, while the second team - Ahmedabad franchise was bought by CVC Capital for Rs. 5,625 crores, as confirmed by an official BCCI press release.

If reports are to be believed, Adani Group placed bids till Rs. 5,000 crore mark, while Manchester United owners didn't close the 5,000 crore mark. Hence, these two groups who were heavily speculated to be the owners didn't get a franchise. 

From the next season of the IPL, 10 teams would participate. It is confirmed that the tournament format will follow the 2011 model, which discarded the simple home-and-away format, included a total of 74 matches, instead of the current number 60. 

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In 2011, 10 teams were split into 2 loose groups. The tournament consisted of 70 league matches and 4 playoff matches. During the league phase, each team will play the same number of matches, 14. Each team may play with the other 4 teams twice, both home & away. Four of the teams in the other group once each (four matches, either home or away), and the remaining team in the other group twice - both home & away. A random draw would decide the composition of groups as well as who will play whom across the groups once and twice.