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BCCI Chairman Shanshak Manohar today addressed the media post the Indian Premier League's Governing Council meeting at Mumbai strongly endorsing the work done by Mr. Lalit Modi as the IPL Chairman and Commissioner. Confirming that Lalit Modi would hold office through till 2012 of the highly successful league, Mr. Manohar added that. "There has to be some continuity and Mr. Lalit Modi is doing an excellent job as IPL Commissioner and Chairman. He has been appointed by the General Body till 2012 and there is no reason and no power or authority with either of us to remove Mr. Modi."

The above an obvious reaction to reports in the press about a difference in opinion between the BCCI office bearers and the man behind their mo st successful project ever, Lalit Modi.

The IPL Governing Council further ratified the expansion of the league with the addition of two new franchises in Season 4.0 in 2011. A price of US $ 225 million per franchise has been set as the minimum base bid price, making it pretty clear that bids are likely to originate either from corporate houses or NRI billionaires.

Current franchisees will be allowed to retain a few core members of their current teams, the modalities for which are to be announced shortly and a fresh re-auction has been scheduled to take place in the third / fourth quarter of next year in time for the new franchises to formulate their squads for Season 2011. This announcement will undoubtedly be welcomed by the Franchisees, who felt it ridiculous that their entire roster would go up for a fresh auction in 2011, driving both player prices through the roof and damaging any fan base created locally for key players.

Lalit Modi, Chairman & Commissioner, Indian Premier League further added, "Today's constructive discussion focused on the improvement of infrastructure and quality hospitality to provide Indian spectators with an enhanced instadia IPL experience. We will now install CCTV's and regulations turnstiles across all venues in the interest of spectator security. Licensing and merchandising is a key component of the IPL's revenue streams and I am happy to report that we have just concluded a licensing deal for the league with a Watch company."

The league will conduct an auction for the upcoming season next year on January 19th 2010 in Mumbai to bring in new players, with a fresh purse of $750,000 having been made available to each franchisee for the auction. Kieron Pollard is being widely tipped to be the hottest property in the auction, and it would be highly surprising if the explosive West Indian doesn't break the bank.

The third edition of the league is set to commence in Hyderabad on March 12th 2009, with Season 2009 Champions the Deccan Chargers taking on the Kolkata Knight Riders. The new third place play-off and the Grand Final have been scheduled on April 24th and 25th respectively at the D. Y. Patil Stadium in Mumbai, with both the Semi Finals being played on April 21st and 22nd at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, home of the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

File Photograph