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The Indian Premier League will expand the number of franchisees to 10 franchisees with the addition of two new franchisees for the IPL 2011 season onwards. The IPL Management has already put application forms for the two new teams on sale. There are twelve cities in contention for the two new teams which include Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Kanpur, Dharamsala, Indore, Cuttack, Gwalior, Visakapatnam, Rajkot, Pune, Vadodara and Kochi. The first eight cities already have cricket stadiums while stadiums are in construction in the last four cities. The base price for the bidding for the two new franchisees are $225 million which is more than four times the base price of $50 million when the original eight franchisees were auctioned in 2008. The number of games in IPL would also increase to 94 games from the year 2011 instead of the present set of 59 games.

As per reports, the IPL Management has also set tougher conditions for applying for the two new teams. One of the major conditions is that the bidder has to have at least $1 billion (Rs.4,580 crores) and if a group makes a bid, it must contain an individual or a single party with that amount of money. As per the IPL’s tender condition, the bidders should submit a Rs 460-crore bank guarantee to participate in the bidding process. The IPL has set a base price of US $ 225 million per franchise. Many are also speculating that Ahmedabad might be one of the strongest contenders for an IPL team. The Ahmedabad based billionaire Gautam Adani-owned Adani Group has also submitted its bid for a new franchisee.

Videocon Industries-led team called P Sports Vision is supposed to have placed bid for Pune franchisee. There are also reports that the guardians of the laws of cricket, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is also supposed to be running for the Pune franchisee. The other prominent bidders might include Sahara Group, Jaypee Group and ICICI Ventures. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel is also speculated to have placed bid for either Pune or Nagpur franchisee. Bollywood stars like Salman Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Ajay Devgn had also showed interest though there is no confirmation if any film stars have bid for any team this time round. There have been 11 bids supposed to have been submitted till now for the two new teams.

The winning bids for the two new franchisees would be revealed on Sunday, March 7 at 1200 IST. Many are speculating that Pune and Ahmedabad might have good chances of hosting the two new teams though everything would be revealed only this Sunday.

IPL had introduced the strategic time-outs last year during IPL 2 and they had told that they would continue with the time-outs in IPL 3 this year too. The IPL management has finally clarified the strategic time-outs for IPL 2010 and there are a few changes this year. One of the most significant changes is that the strategic time-outs have been reduced from seven and a half minutes per 20 over innings which was there in IPL 2 last year to only five minutes per 20 over innings this year. The five minute strategy breaks or time-outs have been divided this year into two time-outs of two and a half minutes each. The batting side can ask for the time-out anytime between the sixth and eighth overs while the bowling side can ask for the time-out anytime between eleventh and sixteenth overs. The IPL commissioner Lalit Modi said that the main purpose of the time-outs was to allow teams to discuss strategies during the game so that extra time is not wasted in discussing strategies during the course of the game and thereby reducing match-time delays. However, some of the franchisees still have a bit of concern as they fear that even this short delays might break the player’s concentration.

The IPL 3 Auction took place on January 19, 2010 and it was a comparatively low profile auction compared to the two previous years. It was also due to the fact that the IPL franchisees had just 750,000 dollars each as the maximum limit to spend on the auction. However, there was a also a new rule this year where the franchisees could make secret ‘silent tiebreaker bids’ in case there was a tie. But the excess money from the secret bid went to IPL instead of the players who could receive only the maximum bid at 750,000 dollars. There were secret bids for two players who were Keiron Pollard and Shane Bond. They were officially sold at 750,000 dollars each but as per sources, Mumbai Indians had supposedly made secret bid of more than 2 million dollars to bag Keiron Pollard while Kolkata Knight Riders had supposedly made secret bid of more than a millon dollars for Shane Bond. The other two high priced puchases and hot bids in IPL season 3 auctions were Kemar Roach and Wayne Parnell who were bagged by Delhi Daredevils for 720,000 dollars and 610,000 dollars respectively. Others won in the auction included Mohammad Kaif (Punjab, 250,000), Eoin Morgan (Bangalore, 220,000), Damien Martyn (Rajasthan, 100,000), Justin Kemp (Chennai, 100,000), Thissara Perera (Chennai, 50,000), Adam Voges (Rajasthan, 50,000) and Yusuf Abdulla (Punjab, 50,000).

There were 66 overseas players in the final IPL 3 auction list and only 10 overseas player and one Indian player were sold. The players who were sold are as follows:

Kieron Pollard (Mumbai Indians, $750,000)
Shane Bond (Kolkata Knight Riders, $750,000)
Kemar Roach (Deccan Chargers, $720,000)
Wayne Parnell (Delhi Dardevils, $610,000)
Mohammad Kaif (Kings XI Punjab, $250,000)
Eoin Morgan (Royal Challengers Bangalore, $220,000)
Damien Martyn (Rajasthan Royals, $100,000)
Justin Kemp (Chennai Super Kings, $100,000)
Thissara Perera (Chennai Super Kings, $50,000)
Adam Voges (Rajasthan Royals, $50,000)
Yusuf Abdulla (Kings XI Punjab, $50,000)

Bangalore Royal Challengers always makes sure that they have some of the best cheerleaders to cheer the team. Last year Bangalore Royal Challengers owner and business tycoon Vijay Mallya had got the Washington Red Skins cheerleaders to cheer for the team. There were some conservative groups last year who protested the girls wearing skimpy outfits while cheering for the team. But the flamboyant Mallya did not succumb to anybody and had the hot cheerleaders throughout the tournament though a few other franchisees changed the dress of the cheerleaders. Vijay Mallya has dropped the Red Skin cheerleaders this year and hired 24 members of the US-based Varsity cheerleader group and renamed them “White Mischief Gals”. The girls have been named after his brand of vodka named “White Mischief”. According to the Mallya Company’s release the girls are “specially trained in flirty acrobatic skills for a scintillating on-field performance”. According to the release the White Mischief girls are “a little bit naughty, a little more hottie and a lot more mischievous”. Hope that the girls can motivate Kevin Pietersen and his team. Meanwhile Vijay Mallya will not be able to cheer his team from the start and he will come a week later as he wants to watch his Formula One team, Force India, compete in the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.

Here are two videos of the new White Mischief Gals

And here is a picture of the last year’s Red Skin cheerleaders

So, whom do you like more of the two