Indian Premier League

The Indian Cricket League (ICL) was founded in 2007, with funding provided by Zee Entertainment Enterprises.[13] The ICL was not recognised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) or the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the BCCI were not pleased with its committee members joining the ICL executive board.[14] To prevent players from joining the ICL, the BCCI increased the prize money in their own domestic tournaments and also imposed lifetime bans on players joining the ICL, which was considered a rebel league by the board.[15][16]

On 13 September 2007, the BCCI announced the launch of a franchise-based Twenty20 cricket competition called Indian Premier League whose first season was slated to start in April 2008, in a "high-profile ceremony" in New Delhi. BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi, said to be the mastermind behind the idea of the IPL, spelled out the details of the tournament including its format, the prize money, franchise revenue system and squad composition rules. It was also revealed that the IPL would be run by a seven-man governing council composed of former India players and BCCI officials and that the top two teams of the IPL would qualify for that year's Champions League Twenty20. Modi also clarified that they had been working on the idea for two years and that the IPL was not started as a "knee-jerk reaction" to the ICL.[17] The league's format was similar to that of the Premier League of England and the NBA in the United States.[16]

In order to decide the owners for the new league, an auction was held on 24 January 2008 with the total base prices of the franchises costing around $400 million.[16] At the end of the auction, the winning bidders were announced, as well as the cities the teams would be based in: Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mohali, and Mumbai.[16] In the end, the franchises were all sold for a total of $723.59 million.[18] The Indian Cricket League soon folded in 2008.[19]

Crowd during a match of the 2015 IPL season in Hyderabad, India.

On 21 March 2010, it was announced that two new franchises – Pune Warriors India and Kochi Tuskers Kerala – would join the league before the fourth season in 2011.[20] Sahara Adventure Sports Group bought the Pune franchise for $370 million while Rendezvous Sports World bought the Kochi franchise for $333.3 million.[20] However, one year later, on 11 November 2011, it was announced that the Kochi Tuskers Kerala side would be terminated following the side breaching the BCCI's terms of conditions.[21]

Then, on 14 September 2012, following the team not being able to find new owners, the BCCI announced that the 2009 champions, the Deccan Chargers, would be terminated.[22] The next month, on 25 October, an auction was held to see who would be the owner of the replacement franchise, with Sun TV Network winning the bid for the Hyderabad franchise.[23] The team would be named Sunrisers Hyderabad.[24]

Pune Warriors India withdrew from the IPL on 21 May 2013 over financial differences with the BCCI.[25] The franchise was officially terminated by the BCCI, on 26 October 2013, on account of the franchise failing to provide the necessary bank guarantee.[26]

On 14 June 2015, it was announced that two-time champions, Chennai Super Kings, and the inaugural season champions, Rajasthan Royals, would be suspended for two seasons following their role in a match-fixing and betting scandal.[27] Then, on 8 December 2015, following an auction, it was revealed that Pune and Rajkot would replace Chennai and Rajasthan for two seasons.[28] The two teams were the Rising Pune Supergiant and the Gujarat Lions.[29]

Currently, with eight teams, each team plays each other twice in a home-and-away round-robin format in the league phase. At the conclusion of the league stage, the top four teams will qualify for the playoffs. The top two teams from the league phase will play against each other in the first Qualifying match, with the winner going straight to the IPL final and the loser getting another chance to qualify for the IPL final by playing the second Qualifying match. Meanwhile, the third and fourth place teams from league phase play against each other in an eliminator match and the winner from that match will play the loser from the first Qualifying match. The winner of the second Qualifying match will move onto the final to play the winner of the first Qualifying match in the IPL Final match, where the winner will be crowned the Indian Premier League champions.

A team can acquire players through any of the three ways: the annual player auction, trading players with other teams during the trading windows, and signing replacements for unavailable players. Players sign up for the auction and also set their base price, and are bought by the franchise that bids the highest for them. Unsold players at the auction are eligible to be signed up as replacement signings. In the trading windows, a player can only be traded with his consent, with the franchise paying the difference if any between the old and new contracts. If the new contract is worth more than the older one, the difference is shared between the player and the franchise selling the player. There are generally three trading windows—two before the auction and one after the auction but before the start of the tournament. Players cannot be traded outside the trading windows or during the tournament, whereas replacements can be signed before or during the tournament.

Some of the team composition rules (as of 2020 season) are as follows:

• The squad strength must be between 18 and 25 players, with a maximum of 8 overseas players.
• Salary cap of the entire squad must not exceed ₹850 million (US$12 million).[30]
• Under-19 players cannot be picked unless they have previously played first-class or List A cricket.
• A team can play a maximum of 4 overseas players in their playing eleven.[31]

The term of a player contract is one year, with the franchise having the option to extend the contract by one or two years. Since the 2014 season, the player contracts are denominated in the Indian rupee, before which the contracts were in U.S. dollars. Overseas players can be remunerated in the currency of the player's choice at the exchange rate on either the contract due date or the actual date of payment.[32] Prior to the 2014 season, Indian domestic players were not included in the player auction pool and could be signed up by the franchises at a discrete amount while a fixed sum of ₹1 million (US$14,000) to ₹3 million (US$42,000) would get deducted per signing from the franchise's salary purse. This received significant opposition from franchise owners who complained that richer franchises were "luring players with under-the-table deals" following which the IPL decided to include domestic players in the player auction.[33]

According to a 2015 survey by Sporting Intelligence and ESPN The Magazine, the average IPL salary when pro-rated is US$4.33 million per year, the second highest among all sports leagues in the world. Since the players in the IPL are only contracted for the duration of the tournament (less than two months), the weekly IPL salaries are extrapolated pro rata to obtain an average annual salary, unlike other sports leagues in which players are contracted by a single team for the entire year.[34]

IPL games utilise television timeouts and hence there is no time limit in which teams must complete their innings. However, a penalty may be imposed if the umpires find teams misusing this privilege. Each team is given a two-and-a-half-minute "strategic timeout" during each innings; one must be taken by the bowling team between the ends of the 6th and 9th overs, and one by the batting team between the ends of the 13th and 16th overs.[35]

Since the 2018 season, the Umpire Decision Review System is being used in all IPL matches, allowing each team one chance to review an on-field umpire's decision per innings.[36]

The 2019 season of the IPL offered a total prize money of ₹500 million (US$7.0 million), with the winning team netting ₹200 million (US$2.8 million). The first and second runners up received ₹125 million (US$1.8 million) and ₹87.5 million (US$1.2 million), respectively, with the fourth placed team also winning ₹87.5 million (US$1.2 million).[37] The other teams are not awarded any prize money. The IPL rules mandate that half of the prize money must be distributed among the players.[38]

Season (No. of teams)	2008 (8)	2009 (8)	2010 (8)	2011 (10)	2012 (9)	2013 (9)	2014 (8)	2015 (8)	2016 (8)	2017 (8)	2018 (8)	2019 (8)	2020 (8)
Host Nation(s)							[76]
Rajasthan Royals	1st	6th	7th	6th	7th	3rd	5th	4th	Suspended		4th	7th	8th
Chennai Super Kings	2nd	SF	1st	1st	2nd	2nd	3rd	2nd	Suspended		1st	2nd	7th
Kolkata Knight Riders	6th	8th	6th	4th	1st	7th	1st	5th	4th	3rd	3rd	5th	5th
Mumbai Indians	5th	7th	2nd	3rd	4th	1st	4th	1st	5th	1st	5th	1st	1st
Delhi Capitals	SF	SF	5th	10th	3rd	9th	8th	7th	6th	6th	8th	3rd	2nd
Kings XI Punjab	SF	5th	8th	5th	6th	6th	2nd	8th	8th	5th	7th	6th	6th
Royal Challengers Bangalore	7th	2nd	3rd	2nd	5th	5th	7th	3rd	2nd	8th	6th	8th	4th
Sunrisers Hyderabad	-					4th	6th	6th	1st	4th	2nd	4th	3rd
Deccan Chargers†	8th	1st	4th	7th	8th	-
Pune Warriors India†	-			9th	9th	8th	-
Kochi Tuskers Kerala†	-			8th	-
Rising Pune Supergiant†	-								7th	2nd	-
Gujarat Lions†	-								3rd	7th	-

^† No longer exists.

The Orange Cap is awarded to the top run-scorer in the IPL during a season. It is an ongoing competition with the leader wearing the cap throughout the tournament until the final game, with the eventual winner keeping the cap for the season.[77]

The Purple Cap is awarded to the top wicket-taker in the IPL during a season. It is an ongoing competition with the leader wearing the cap throughout the tournament until the final game, with the eventual winner keeping the cap for the season.[78]

The award was called the "man of the tournament" till the 2012 season. The IPL introduced the Most Valuable Player rating system in 2013, the leader of which would be named the "Most Valuable Player" at the end of the season.

From 2008 to 2012, the title sponsor was DLF, India's largest real estate developer, who had secured the rights with a bid of ₹200 crore (US$28 million) for five seasons.[79] After the conclusion of the 2012 season, PepsiCo bought the title sponsorship rights for ₹397 crore (US$56 million) for the subsequent five seasons.[80] However, the company terminated the deal in October 2015, two years before the expiry of the contract, reportedly due to the two-season suspension of Chennai and Rajasthan franchises from the league.[81] The BCCI then transferred the title sponsorship rights for the remaining two seasons of the contract to Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo for ₹200 crore (US$28 million).[82] In June 2017, Vivo retained the rights for the next five seasons (2018–2022) with a winning bid of ₹2,199 crore (US$310 million), in a deal more expensive than Barclays' Premier League title sponsorship contract between 2013 and 2016.[83][84] On 4 August 2020, Vivo got out of the title sponsorship rights due to the ongoing military stand-off between India and China at the Line of Actual Control in July 2020.[85] It was also reported that the withdrawal was a result of Vivo's market losses due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation and that it intended to return as the title sponsors for the following 3 years.[86] Dream11 bagged the title sponsorship for the 2020 IPL for an amount of ₹220 crore.[87]

The tournament has grown rapidly in value over the years 2016–18, as seen in a series of jumps in value from one season to the next. The IPL as a whole was valued by financial experts at US$4.16 billion in 2016, but that number grew to $5.3 billion in 2017, and $6.13 billion in 2018. A report from Duff & Phelps said that one of the contributing factors in the rapid growth of the value of the Indian Premier League was signing a new television deal with Star India Private Limited, which engaged more viewers due to the fact that the IPL was transmitted to regional channels in 8 different languages, rather than the previous deal, which saw the transmissions limited to sports networks with English language commentary.[88][89] The report also stated that the game continued to recover from recent controversy, stating "This IPL season has grabbed the eyeballs for all the right reasons with a relatively controversy free tournament, coupled with some scintillating on-field performances which have brought the spotlight back on the game."[90]

According to another independent report conducted by Brand Finance, a London-based company, after the conclusion of the 2017 Indian Premier League, the IPL has seen its business value grow by 37% to an all-time high of $5.3 billion — crossing the five billion mark for the first time in a season. According to the director of the company: "Now in its 11th season, the Indian Premier League is here to stay. The league has delivered financially for the players, franchisees, sponsors and India as a whole, prompting a strong desire among a range of stakeholders to appropriately value it. To ensure continued development, management and team owners will have to explore innovative ways of engaging fans, clubs, and sponsors."[91]

The valuation of the individual franchises themselves vary, with the top valued teams being the Mumbai Indians ($113 million) and the Kolkata Knight Riders ($104 million). Other franchises mentioned in the report, varied in value from $43 million (Rajasthan Royals) to $98 million (Chennai Super Kings).[88]