The results are in! Say hello to the new Kochi IPL Team. Kochi Tuskers Kerala (no on referred to as just Kochi Tuskers ) is the new name of the team.

We think the name is great. And as for the logo, well anything is better than the initial logo that looked like that of a mosquito coil brand. And even more great news. We have insider information stating that all 7 matches will be played in Kochi. Stay tuned for more information.

Good news Kochiites! The Kerala Cricket Association secretary Mr. T.C Matthew has said that the Kochi IPL team name and the coach would be announced the end of the week. For those who are unaware of whats been happening here is a quick refresher. Rendezvous Sports World in March won the franchisee for the Kochi IPL team with a bid of Rs.15 billion. After winning the auction Lalit Modi created controversies to make sure the Kochi team does not materialize. The prick not only managed to bring in utter chaos into the league, but also helped him loose his job.

There has been numerous reports that Steve Waugh is being signed to coach the Kochi team. We will just have to wait for more information. And as for names why dont you have a look at the names our readers have come up with. We have names from Kochi Kryptonites to Kochi Kootharas. http://www.kochivibe.com/suggest-names-for-kochi-cochin-kerala-ipl-team/

Great news Kochiites! Kochivibe had said in one of its last post, Kochi is very highly likely to get a a IPL team. And now we have confirmed news that Kochi is one of the cities along with Pune that will have a team for the 2011 IPL. The Kochi team was won by the Rendezvous sports world limited for 1533.33 Crores. We will update you with further information when available! Celebration time Kochi!

A day after Lalit Modi announced that IPL have dropped all the controversial qualifiers, Kochi’s chance to an IPL team have grown a lot. Currently people who are interested to bid for Kochi are

• Ashok Piramal Group
• Jaypee Group
• Rosy Blue India Pvt. Ltd
• Anchor Electricals
• Muthoot Pappachan Group
• Mohanlal & Priyadarshan

Experts say with these developments, Kochi is going to be one of the top bid teams. Another city that is predicted to win is Ahmedabad with Adani Enterprises, Sahara Group and ICICI bidding for the city. Adani group and Sahara is all set to “show them the money”. Days till March 21st (last day of submitting bids) will be very tensed and only when they open the bids the same day will our anxiety be put to rest. Till than we can just hope for the best because as of now Kochi could not have a better chance. We have our fingers crossed. GO KOCHI!!

Cochin’s IPL-Team dream is just not ready to die. Thanks to the stiff qualification criteria,Mohanlal-Priyadarshan and company who was set to bid for Kochi dropped out of the race. But Lalit Modi’s efforts to sell the 2 teams went belly up thanks to very strict qualifiers.

The decision was made only after 3 companies submitted bids while 10 companies bought tender documents. These unopened tenders were returned to the bidders. The revised Invitation To Tender (IIT) will be made available on March 9th and the bids will be open on March 21 in Chennai. The 2 qualifiers that companies had a problem with was

• The company should demonstrate a net worth of nearly Rs. 5000 crores.
• The company that wins the auction needs to pay $100 million as advance guarantee.

According to the revised rules the Rs. 5000 crores net worth clause has been removed and winners need to pay only $10 million as advance guarantee.

The Muthoot Papachan group (who was reportedly backing Mohanlal and Priyadarshan) initially had backed out from the race and now will be studying the new terms and will let the board decide if they will take part in the auction. So Kochi’s IPL dream is not over and there is hope.

(Wonder what made Lalit change his mind.. )

A lot of our hopes for a Kochi IPL team rested on Mohanlal’s and Priyadarshan’s shoulders. And that dont look too good. Well, its looking bad as the duo have backed out of the auction. They backed out after IPL changed the conditions and asked for Rs. 5000 crores as security deposit instead of the initial Rs. 300 crores. This did not go down well not only the filmy duo but also with the investors who was backing them. The status of the billionaire sheik from Abu Dhabi is not confirmed.

Experts predict that Ahmedabad will be picked up by the Adani group and either Nagpur or Pune by Videocon. Screw them all.  If Kochivibe makes billions and trillions of dollars we promise to get Kochi a ‘Kochivibe’ team!

The buzz of Kochi having its own Indian Premier League team has been around for quite sometime. Here is more information on the bidding process. The cities that have been offered as the home location for the franchises are Pune, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Kanpur, Dharamsala, Vizag, Rajkot, Cuttack, Baroda, Cochin, Indore and Gwalior. The auction is scheduled to happen on March 9th 2010.

• This time the process of bidding for teams is extremely difficult unlike in 2008. Among the most contentious clauses is the requirement for the bidder to privide a bank guarantee equivalent to 100 per cent of the money that the winning bidder offers for the 10-year contract within seven days of winning the bid. Where as in 2008, the initial franchisees of the eight IPL teams had to provide only 10 per cent of their bids as bank guarantee.
• Bidders also need to have a net worth of $1 billion as a pre-requisite and offer a pre-bid bank guarantee of $100 million. In the 2008 auctions, prospective bidders paid a pre-bid deposit of Rs 20 crore.
• The minimum bid price has been fixed at a staggering $225 million (Rs 1,042 crore), compared to the base price of $50 million (over Rs 230 crore) when the first auctions were held in 2008.

Here is an interesting fact. A list of India’s 10 most affluent cities was recently published. Following is the list

1. New Delhi – Has IPL Team (Delhi Daredevils)
2. Bangalore – Has IPL Team (Royal Challengers)
3. Mumbai – Has IPL Team (Mumbai Indians)
4. Chennai – Has IPL Team (Chennai Super Kings)
5. Hyderabad – Has IPL Team (Deccan Chargers)
6. Kolkata – Has IPL Team (Kolkata Knight Riders)
7. Kochi – One of the home locations thats on offer in 2010
8. Pune – One of the home locations thats on offer in 2010
9. Jaipur – Has IPL Team (Rajasthan Royals)
10. Ahmedabad – One of the home locations thats on offer in 2010

7 out of the 10 most affluent cities in the list, have an IPL team. All 6 cities above Kochi has an IPL team. All 3 cities that dont have an IPL team are on offer as a home location for the auction on March 9th.

Mohanlal and Priyadarshan has shown interest in bidding. Also Muthoot Pappachan Group is said to have making efforts for a Kochi team by partnering with Mohanlal and Priyadarshan. Also there are reports that Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan is interested in picking up a team. Sheiks and Malayalees has been sharing a very good bond from the past couple of decades . Keeping that in mind, we hope he bids for Kochi too . There are reports that YusufAli MA, M.D of EMKE group and person behind LULU group (who is also building India’s biggest mall in Kochi) is keen on a Kochi team. As per some reports Salman Khan is keen on bidding for an IPL team and is interested either in Kochi or Nagpur.

Making this entry on Kochivibe has made us dizzy. Especially the Rupees and Dollars part . We hope that Kochi is one of the 2 lucky cities to get an IPL team. We are amused to see “Dharmsalsa” as one of the cities up for grabs. That just DONT sound like one of the cities that would have an IPL team (sorry Dharmsalians). Kochi would make a better team anyday! .  Fingers crossed for March 9th.!