T10 League to welcome new two teams

The first edition of the T10 league was held under the aegis of the Emirates Cricket Board.

After the glorious success of the first edition of the inaugural Heera T10 League, the tournament's governing council announced plans for the expansion of the event, a press release said.
As part of the expansion plans, an Invitation To Tender (ITT) was released for two new teams to be added to the tournament. The first edition of the tournament featured six teams, but in 2018 the plan is to increase the number of franchises to eight.
With the focus of the tournament being strongly South Asian, it was decided by the governing council that the two new teams will continue to build on that association. Accordingly the prospective bidders can choose the names of Gujarat, Andhra, Deccan and Marwaris amongst many other names as the preferred name for their team.
The first edition, staged in December 2017, was held at the historic Sharjah Cricket Stadium. The six sides that participated in the tournament were: Maratha Arabians, Pakhtoon, Bengal Tigers, Punjabi Legends, Kerala Kings and Team Sri Lanka Cricket.
The tournament was eventually won by Eoin Morgan-led Kerala Kings in a thrilling finale against Punjabi Legends.
The entire concept of T10 League was the brainchild of chairman, Shaji-ul-Mulk, an innovator in his own right and president Salman Iqbal of ARY Group. The other two Board members, Parvez Khan and Habib Khan, also showed their excitement at the success of the T10 League.
"We were absolutely thrilled with the response to the first edition. The attendance at the stadium, television viewership and the quality of play was absolutely top notch. But now comes the time to the plan ahead. We are looking forward to a lot of interest to the ITT and are hoping to welcome on board two franchises," said Mulk.
On his part, Iqbal too looked ahead to the process and was particularly excited about the possible interest from new owners. 
"We have conducted a thorough review of the first edition of the tournament. The stage is now set for us to take off onto the next level by adding two new teams. We are looking to complete the process as early as possible so that we can scale up the preparations this year," opined Iqbal.
"The annual base price of the bid for new franchises has been fixed at $1.2 million. A one-time premium bid will decide the new franchise owners," said governing council member Parvez Khan.
The tournament is best remembered for presenting to the world, cricket's own version of 90-minute contests lasting 10-overs-a-side and that too in just four days.
Among the icon players who played in the tournament were former Pakistan captains Misbah-ul-Haq and Shahid Afridi, current Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, current West Indies T20 captain Carlos Brathwaite, former Indian opener Virender Sehwag, current England ODI and T20I captain Eoin Morgan, Bangladesh's talismanic all-rounder and current Test captain Shakib Al Hasan. 
It was only befitting that such an innovative approach was unveiled in a historic setting of the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
The first edition of the tournament was held under the aegis of the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB), with the active support of Sri Lana Cricket (SLC), Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).