The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has formally authorised the two new Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises – Lucknow and Ahmedabad, owned by RPSG Group and CVC Capital respectively to sign players. The go-ahead was given to them through mail on Wednesday morning.
According to Cricbuzz, the new teams have been given a new deadline of January 22 to complete the recruitment process. Notably, both sides can rope in a maximum of three players with not more than one overseas player.
The January 22 deadline also means the mega auction will take place on February 12 and 13 as originally planned.
“They have time till 5 pm on January 22 to complete their signings,” said a BCCI official confirming the letter to the new teams.
When it comes to signing the capped players, both Ahmedabad and Lucknow franchises will forfeit INR 33 crore (INR 15 crore, INR 11 crore and INR 7 crore being the stipulated fee slab for the players) if they sign three capped players.
Similarly, in the case of two players, the amount will be INR 24 crore (INR 14 crore and INR 10 crore), and for one player, it will be INR 14 crore. An uncapped player would cost them only INR 4 crore, which is similar to the other eight teams who had the right to sign a maximum of four players.
However, the new teams cannot sign more than one uncapped player and they are allowed to pay more than the specified fee only with the condition that they would lose that much money from the salary cap of INR 90 crore.
Various media reports have claimed that the Lucknow team is set to rope in star Indian opener KL Rahul as their captain. Likewise, all-rounder, Hardik Pandya is expected to join the Ahmedabad franchise.
