Rajasthan Royals sale attracts five buyers; Bid-war expected ahead of IPL 2026

Rajasthan Royals have been put for sale ahead of IPL 2026 [Source: chinmayshah28/X.com]The sale of two IPL franchises, the Rajasthan Royals and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, has caused a stir around the Indian cricketing circuit since the end of the IPL 2025 season. At first, it was only known that RCB owners are looking to sell the franchise after winning their first IPL in the last season, before the inaugural champions of the league, RR, joined them and put the Men in Pink for sale in December. Rajasthan Royals in high demand The majority of the Jaipur-based franchise is owned by businessman Manoj Badale through his firm, Emerging Media. They have been in control of the franchise since the 2009 season, right after they won the auction in 2008. As they look to cash in on the former champions, they have appointed investment bank Raine Group as their advisors. The Raine Group has previously dealt with the sales of Chelsea FC and Manchester United as well, and they have set the initial valuation of RR to be between $1.2 to $1.8 billion dollars. According to ESPNcricinfo, these values are estimated from the non-binding bids, which took place in January and February 2026. Despite such a high value, as many as five parties have shown their interest in buying the IPL franchise and the final bids are scheduled for the first week of March. Similar to RCB, RR owners have also set an option of 100% sale of the team. Who are the potential buyers of the Rajasthan Royals? As per the same report, some of the interested buyers are looking to bid for both franchises. Two of them (Capri Global and Lancer Capital) were also previously involved in the bidding process of teams in 2021, when Gujarat Giants and Lucknow Super Giants were formed. The following are the five shortlisted buyers of RR: 1. Lancer Capital 2. Capri Global 3. Arizona-based tech entrepreneur Kal Somani 4. Govil Group 5. The Times of India Group During the 2021 process, Capri had bid INR 4024 crore for both teams, and Lancer Capital, which also owns Desert Vipers in ILT20, had bid INR 4128.65 crore for Ahmedabad and INR 4023.99 crore for Lucknow. Notably, the current valuation of RR is set to exceed the combined value of GT and LSG from 2021. Royals set to head into a new era Rajasthan has been in the forefront of the league right from season 1 in 2008, when Shane Warne did the unthinkable with a young crop of players to win the first-ever title. Since then, they have had multiple Indian captains leading them, including Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane briefly. They also had leaders like Shane Warne, Steve Smith and their own find, Sanju Samson, in the thick of things for the past few years. Now, after Sanju Samson has left for the Chennai Super Kings and the franchise is up for sale, a shake-up is expected. Currently, they have several future stars in Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Dhruv Jurel among their ranks, and the future looks uncertain but exciting for them under the coaching of Kumar Sangakkara.