The Indian Premier League, commonly known around the world as the IPL, is a professional Twenty-Twenty cricket tournament that is contested in India, between eight teams every March, April, or May. The IPL is exceptionally popular all over the world and is the most-attended cricket league in the world. It’s also the sixth most-attended event in all sports leagues. To date, there have been twelve seasons of the IPL.
The History of the Indian Premier League
The Indian Premier League was founded in 2008 by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) following the growing popularity of short-form twenty-twenty cricket, which brought a new, younger audience to the sport.
The IPL was the world’s first sporting league to be shown live on YouTube in 2010, and the league has been valued at around $6.7billion.
When Does it Start?
Typically, the IPL starts in March and lasts for around seven weeks. However, the Coronavirus pandemic has meant that the 2020 tournament will be played in September in the UAE.
Who Plays in the IPL?
Eight teams play in the Indian Premier League every year as franchises. These teams each represent a different city in India. An auction was held during the founding year of the tournament to decide which cities the teams would be based in, and who would own them.
In 2008 the teams who took part in the competition represented Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mohali, and Mumbai. In 2020, the cities represented will be the same eight, but there have been changes in the intervening years.
Matching fixing and financial irregularities have seen some cities franchises face sanctions, leaving them unable to play in some events. During these years’ teams from Pune, Kochi and Rajkot have been drafted in as replacements.
Tournament Format
During the opening phase of the tournament, each team plays each other twice, once at home and once away from home. They are awarded two points for a win, one for a draw, and none for a loss. Once these games have been completed, the top four teams progress to the next phase, and the bottom four are eliminated.
The next phase is made up of two qualifiers and an eliminator. The top two teams from the league play each other in qualifier one. The winner progresses to the final, and the loser waits.
The teams placed third and fourth in the round-robins also play each other. The loser is eliminated, and the winner plays the loser of qualifier one in qualifier two. The winner of this game, then plays the winner of qualifier one in the final, with the winner being crowned triumphant and awarded the trophy.
Game Format
The games themselves follow a simple T20 format, but there is no time limit on how long each team has to complete their twenty over innings. However, a penalty can be imposed if the umpire feels that a team is misusing the lack of time limit for their own gain. Each team is given a two-and-a-half-minute timeout during each innings. The bowling team has to take their time out between the ends of the sixth and ninth innings, and the batters must use theirs during the thirteenth to the sixteenth. Each team gets one chance to review one on-field umpire decision in each innings, using the umpire decision review system.
How Do the Players Get Selected?
Players for IPL teams are selected in one of three ways. First, by annual auction. This is where the majority of signings take place, and it’s certainly the most fun!
Players taking part in the auction set their own base price. The league’s franchises then place bids if they want to add the player to their ranks, and the player joins the highest bidding team.
Players that are not signed during this auction are free to sign for any franchise that offers them a contract.
The third way to sign players for the season is during the specific, predetermined trading window when franchisees are free to negotiate deals with each other and offer contracts to players.
Players are only kept on season-long contracts, and so the teams must decide which players they want to keep at the end of each season.
Every team participating in the Indian Premier League must have 19-25 players, and a maximum of eight of these can be from overseas. During each game, only four of a team’s eleven fielded players can be from overseas.
Who is the Most Expensive Player?
As of the 2020 auction, the most expensive overseas player is Pat Cummins from Australia. The Kolkata Knight Riders paid 15.5 crores ($2.1m) in 2020.
When it comes to all players, Virat Kohli is the most expensive, with his contract renewal with Royal Challengers Bangalore worth 17 Crores ($2.4m).
Prize Money
The total prize money for the 2020 season of the Indian Premier League will be 24.6 Crores, or $7.2million. The winning team was awarded 10 Crores ($2.9million). Teams up to fourth place win a share of the total prize money, with the bottom four teams winning nothing. According to IPL rules, 50% of the prize money is distributed between the players.
The Indian Premier League is one of the most expensive and profitable sports leagues in the world, with colossal sponsorship and television deals making up a vital part of the prize money.
Previous Winners
In 2019 the Mumbai Indians beat the Chennai Super Kings in the final to become the first Indian Premier League team to win the title four times.
Chennai Super Kings themselves have won the title three times in 2010, 2011, and 2018. No other team has successfully defended their title, but the Kolkata Knight Riders have been successful twice in 2012 and 2014.
The Rajasthan Royals won the first season of the IPL in 2008, The Deccan Chargers (now defunct) won in 2009, and the Sunrisers, who replaced the Chargers as Hyderabad’s franchise in 2012, won the title in 2016.