On a day when Patanjali owned by Baba Ramdev expressed an interest in the title rights of the IPL, the BCCI, on Monday, invited bids for the tournament that will now be held in UAE between September 19 and November 10.
Secretary Jay Shah announced a 13-point clause for submission of the bids from interested “third parties" and the winner will be announced on August 18. The last date for submission of bids is August 14.
“The Rights are available for the period from August 18, 2020 to December 31, 2020," the BCCI press release stated.
“Details regarding the Rights and product categories in which the Rights are available will be provided only to parties who submit the EOI and are found eligible," it stated.
The BCCI also stated that bidding the highest amount may not fetch the rights for a company if the board is not satisfied with its plans on commercialising its most precious property.
“…it is clarified that BCCI shall not be obliged to award the Rights to the third party which indicates willingness to pay the highest fees in the course of discussions/ negotiations with BCCI after submitting an EOI," the BCCI stated.
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“BCCI’s decision in this regard will also depend on a number of other relevant factors, including but not limited to, the manner in which the third party intends to exploit the Rights and the potential impact of the same on brand IPL…," the BCCI release stated.
“…(it) will be examined/evaluated by BCCI in the course of discussions/negotiations with interested third parties who submit an EOI," it added.
It can now be safely assumed that BCCI will get a lesser valuation for a four-month period compared to Vivo which had the rights for a bigger duration.
According to the BCCI’s norms for accepting the ‘Expression of Interest" (EOI), “…turnover of the interested third party must be over Rs 300 Crore (Indian Rupees Three Hundred Crores only) as per the last audited accounts."
The audited accounts need to be submitted with the bid.
The BCCI also made it clear that middle-men or agents cannot enter the bidding process and “any such bids will be cancelled."
“It is clarified that marketing agency/agents are not eligible to bid and any bid submitted by a marketing agency/agent shall be rejected at the outset."
The mail also stated that interested bidders must express their Interest by August 14, 5pm via email and then finally send in the official bid on August 11 between 11am and 1pm.
The BCCI have had to act in this manner after calling of the title deal with the Chinese company Vivo for the current year due to massive public outrage over the Sino-India border stand-off.
It was a Rs 440 crore deal between BCCI and Vivo.
IPL Chairman Brijesh Patel expressed confidence that a lot of companies are interested in becoming IPL sponsors.
“It is not a setback (Vivo pulling out), there is already a lot of interest (for title rights). Whether an Indian company or from anywhere else, whoever bids the most gets the rights. We will finalise the whole process by August 18," Patel said.
Earlier on Monday, the BCCI were given the green light from both the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of External Affairs to host the IPL in UAE in 2020.
Most of the franchises will be flying out after August 20 after two mandatory RT-PCR (COVID-19 tests) conducted within 24 hours from their departure base.
The Chennai Super Kings players and staff, who are leaving on August 22, will have a small camp at the Chepauk on the insistence of skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.