Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals are on their way for a blockbuster return in 2018.
Franchises Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals will make a comeback in the Indian Premier League next year and BCCI is making plans of having a grand welcome for the two. BCCI has planned to welcome the two franchises on the very day that it releases the ‘Invitation To Tender (ITT)’ for the above-mentioned rights.
A day after TOI report on BCCI’s decision to cut down the period of media rights for broadcast bids from 10 years to five, it came to light that the Board is looking to also mark the occasion to articulate the return of two of its original eight franchises.
The two teams suffered ill fate due to spot-fixing and thus were ruled out of the IPL.
CSK are learnt to be making grand plans for their return and are in the middle of finalising events themed around the franchise’s massive fan base.
An official in the know of things said: MS Dhoni, the former skipper at Rising Pune Supergiant, who “seems to have become an unnecessary talking point for all the wrong reasons other than cricket,” will go back to the Super Kings – a team that he had been associated successfully for eight long years – immediately after the end of the 2017 edition.
The Royals, meanwhile, are in talks with a leading corporate – that already has interests in the IPL as of now – for a possible stake sale and could return to the tournament from the 2018 edition onwards with a new co-owner.
The corporate is looking to extend its stay in the IPL, a tournament that has caught its chairman’s fancy, and is therefore happily engaging itself in all possible discussions right now.
Royals have been looking to bring in new investors in the franchises – either as a co-owner or even toy with the idea of selling the team – for a while now. For this purpose, the franchise even began working its way towards clearing up a lot of its internal concerns like buying back co-owner Suresh Chellaram’s 49% share in the ownership structure to douse past controversies.
Chellaram, for the record, happens to be former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi’s brother-in-law.
A leading franchise from the north is in the final round of talks with a corporate that has major interests in the sports industry down south. “Talks have been going on for a while and due-diligence is on at the moment. If everything goes through smoothly, both parties will approach the BCCI for a final ratification and go ahead with the deal,” a source in the know of things said.