IPL 2022 draft date: As per reports, the draft deadline date for Lucknow and Ahmedabad IPL franchises would in all probability get extended.
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After emerging as the winners of what was an unprecedented, record bidding event in October this year, the RP-Sanjiv Goenka (RPSG) Group and the CVC Capital Partners (Irelia Company Pvt. Ltd) bagged the Lucknow and Ahmedabad franchises respectively, and are in all probability, if things go as planned, set to make their debut in the 15th season of the IPL next year.
After an action-packed players retention event of the eight current franchises last month, the Lucknow and the Ahmedabad teams have, as per recent reports, finalized the three initial player draft-ins into their respective squads before the mega auction next month.
It is worth mentioning that the aforementioned franchises are supposed to draft in a total of 3 players (two Indian, one Overseas), after which they join all the existing franchises to bid for their favourite players from a vast pool of individuals.
But the CVC Capitals- the ownership firm of the Ahmedabad franchise had landed itself in a bit of some controversy a few weeks ago after its alleged links with betting firms abroad surfaced.
As per reports, under the ‘portfolio companies’ list on the CVC Capital Partners’ website is Tipico, which is a sports betting and online gaming company. Another link to the gaming & betting industry comes from Sisal, a betting gaming and payments, consumer/retail company.
It is worth noticing that bidding/betting, unlike some countries, is not legal in India, and thus, there is a big question mark currently whether the franchise should make legal inroads in an Indian sports league.
IPL 2022 draft date: Why is the drafting deadline date likely to get extended?
As per Cricbuzz, there is an air of optimism for a possible settlement soon on the matter, as it has been learnt that a retired judge of the Supreme Court has been consulted and his advice is being awaited.
The IPL Governing council, as a result of the controversy, had formed a neutral committee to address the matter on December 4, with the aim to hand a go-ahead to the CVC Capitals with the ‘Letter of Intent’. We still have no word from the BCCI, as to what came out of the meeting.
As per the earlier deadline, both new franchises were given deadline to finalize 3 signings by December 25th.
But now, its all but official, that the draft deadline will be pushed to January next year. The BCCI is yet to announce the new deadline. If the Ahmedabad franchise issue is sorted by the next week, new teams can be given 15-20 days window to finalize their signings, if reports are to be believed.
What this also means, is that the IPL 2022 mega auction, which was supposed to take place in the first week of January, will in all probability be pushed further back to the third or fourth week of January.
