IPL governing council provides letters of intent to the two new IPL teams after a delay
Why the delay in clearing CVC?
On October 25, CVC Capital, a major global private equity fund, bid nearly US$ 750 million to buy the rights to own the Ahmedabad franchise. It was the second-highest bid, only behind that of the RP Sanjeev Goenka Group, which bid nearly US$940 million to bag the rights for the Lucknow franchise. Both the new teams were originally asked by the IPL to buy a maximum of three players by December 25. However, the entire process was stalled after the BCCI decided not give the letter of intent to CVC when it emerged that the company has investments in two betting companies overseas.
With gambling being illegal in India, the BCCI appointed a group of legal experts before it could clear CVC. ESPNcricinfo has learnt that the BCCI gave the nod after it established that the IPL investment comes from CVC’s Asian funds, and there is no direct or indirect link with the betting companies CVC owns, as those investments come from its overseas funds.
Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo