New Delhi: Days after Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Rajeev Shukla announced that there will be no extension for Rising Pune Supergiant and the Gujarat Lions in the next edition of the tournament, RPS owner Sanjiv Goenka dismissed rumours of him having already bought stakes in Rajasthan Royals (RR).
RPS and GL, who replaced Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan respectively on a two-year contract, will be out of the tournament with the two old franchises set to make a comeback next year.
When asked whether he had bought stakes in Rajasthan Royals, Goenka said, “What kind of a statement is that. The answer is ‘no’.”
Asked if there was a possibility next season, Goenka, who co-owns Indian Super League (ISL) franchise Atletico de Kolkata (ATK), said: “Maybe. You are trying to create a controversy here.”
Goenka, however, said it’s time for Indian corporate houses to get involved in sports in a bigger way.
“Time has come for corporates to get involved in a larger way in sport. It’s quite apart from the mileage, it’s a responsibility to help younger people, build academies, this is very important.”
IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla had said before that Pune and Gujarat will have to go through a fresh bidding process in order to play IPL after this year.
“No extension is being given to both the teams (RPS and Lions). Agreement was only for two years. Even if we make it a 10-team league, the two new teams would have to be freshly bid, so they (RPS and GL) are not being given any extension or anything,” Shukla told mediapersons.
The general mood of the IPL Governing Council is to stay put with eight teams as a 10-team league would increase the number of matches to 84.
Source: Zee News