The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has now officially given clearance to the Ahmedabad franchise and the Letter of Intent (LOI) ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction, media reports suggest. Irelia Co. Pvt Ltd (CVC Capital Partners) bagged the Ahmedabad franchise for a bid of ₹5,625 crores. On the other hand, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group acquired the second new team, Lucknow, for ₹7,090 crores.
RPSG received the LOI almost immediately, but CVC’s clearance was delayed after questions were raised about the company’s business interests in betting firms in the international market. The accusations led to the postponement of the auction date, which has now shifted to the second week of February from early January.
Ahmedabad franchise officially gets BCCI clearance, receives Letter of Intent (LOI) from the cricket board.
Director of cricket: Vikram Solanki
Head coach: Ashish Nehra
Mentor: Gary KirstenCaptain: Shreyas Iyer (most likely).
As I said, action-packed week begins. : )
— KSR (@KShriniwasRao) January 10, 2022
After some strong negotiations, all issues have been cleared by the BCCI, and the auction and cricketing season can go ahead.
2022 ⏩ pic.twitter.com/osgpZJbTrn
— Shreyas Iyer (@ShreyasIyer15) January 1, 2022
Earlier media reports also suggest that former Delhi Capitals (DC) skipper and Indian middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer is likely to lead the Gujarat-based franchise in the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. However, some of the reports are suggesting that Hardik Pandya will be leading the franchise and they also want to rope Rashid Khan in the squad.
Hardik Pandya will be the captain of the brand new Ahmedabad franchise (not Shreyas). They're getting Rashid Khan on board too.
Action-packed week. : )
— KSR (@KShriniwasRao) January 10, 2022
Hardik Pandya has a forgettable outing for the Mumbai Indians (MI) in IPL 2021 as he failed to with the bat more often than not and he failed to make himself completely first for bowling as well. He will be expected to attain complete fitness ahead of the IPL 2022.
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Shreyas Iyer missed the first half of IPL 2021 due to an injury and was replaced by Rishabh Pant for the entire season, despite Iyer making a comeback to the squad in the second half.
Iyer wasn’t named among DC’s four retentions this season, reportedly because of his captaincy aspirations. He has a brilliant record in the tournament, having led DC to their first IPL final in 2020 with an overall win percentage of 58.54.
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Former England cricketer and coach Vikram Solanki is set to join the team as the Director of Cricket. He has played over 50 ODIs and three T20Is for England. Ashish Nehra, who represented India as a southpaw fast bowler and has also been a part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) franchise as bowling coach, is likely to be the new team’s head coach.
