Pune and Kochi have been announced as the two new franchises in the Indian Premier cricket League.
Pune was bought for 520 million dollars and Kochi for 470 million.
Counting some of India's best-known Bollywood stars and billionaire tycoons among its owners, and some of the world's most illustrious cricketers on its teamsheets, the IPL will have 10 teams from next season and the number of matches will increase from 60 to 94.
The league's chairman Lalit Modi said the high sums involved in the bidding showed the tournament was recession-proof, and is striving to compete for size with the likes of the NBA basketball league in the United States.
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India, Asia's third-largest economy, is pulling away from the global slowdown faster than many of its peers in the west, and is forecast to grow at 8.5 percent in the next fiscal year.
