The Indian Premier League (IPL), officially Vivo Indian Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a

professional Twenty20 cricket league in India contested during April and May of every year by teams
representing Indian cities and some states. The league was founded by the Board of Control for Cricket
in India (BCCI) in 2008, and is regarded as the brainchild of Lalit Modi, the founder and former
commissioner of the league.[3] IPL has an exclusive window in ICC Future Tours Programme.[4]

The IPL is the most-attended cricket league in the world and in 2014 ranked sixth by average attendance
among all sports leagues.[5] In 2010, the IPL became the first sporting event in the world to be
broadcast live on YouTube.[6][7] The brand value of IPL in 2017 was US$5.3 billion, according to Duff &
Phelps.[8] According to BCCI, the 2015 IPL season contributed ₹11.5 billion (US$182 million) to the GDP
of the Indian economy.[9]

There have been ten seasons of the IPL tournament. The current IPL title holders are the Mumbai
Indians, who won the 2017 season.[10]

Contents

1 History

1.1 Background

1.2 Foundation

1.3 Expansions and terminations

2 Organization

2.1 Tournament format

2.2 Player acquisition, squad composition and salaries

2.3 Prize money

2.4 Rules

3 Teams

3.1 Current teams

3.2 Former teams

4 Tournament seasons and results

4.1 Team's performances

5 Awards

5.1 Orange Cap

5.2 Purple Cap

6 Financials

6.1 Title sponsorship

6.2 Brand value

7 Broadcasting

7.1 International broadcasters

8 IPL Governing Council

9 See also

10 References

11 External links

History

Background

The Indian Cricket League (ICL) was founded in 2007, with funding provided by Zee Entertainment
Enterprises.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13][14]

Foundation

"The IPL has been designed to entice an entire new generation of sports fans into the grounds
throughout the country. The dynamic Twenty20 format has been designed to attract a young fan base,
which also includes women and children."

“”

— Modi during the launch of the IPL.[15]

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 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 IPL was not started as a "knee-jerk reaction" to the
ICL.[15] The league's format was similar to that of the Premier League of England and the NBA in the
United States.[14]

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.[14] 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.[14] In the end, the franchises were all sold for a total
of $723.59 million.[16] The Indian Cricket League soon folded in 2008.

Expansions and terminations

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.[17] Sahara Adventure Sports Group
bought the Pune franchise for $370 million while Rendezvous Sports World bought the Kochi franchise
for $333.3 million.[17] 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.[18]

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.[19] 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.[20] The team would be named Sunrisers
Hyderabad.[21]

Pune Warriors India withdrew from the IPL on 21 May 2013 over financial differences with the BCCI.[22]
The franchise was officially terminated by the BCCI, on 26 October 2013, on account of the franchise
failing to provide the necessary bank guarantee.[23]

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.[24] Then, on 8 December 2015, following an auction, it was revealed
that Pune and Rajkot would replace Chennai and Rajasthan for two seasons.[25] The two teams were
the Rising Pune Supergiant and the Gujarat Lions.

Organization
Tournament format

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.

Player acquisition, squad composition and salaries

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 contract. 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 can not 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 2018 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 ₹80 crore.[26]

Under-19 players can not 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 but there are some instances in
IPL when a team have been played with less than 4 overseas players.[27]

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.[28] 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 ₹10 to 30 lakh
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.[29]

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 sport leagues in the world.
Since the players in IPL are only contracted for the duration of the tournament (less than two months),
the weekly IPL salaries are extrapolated pro rata to obtain average annual salary, unlike other sport
leagues in which players are contracted by a single team for the entire year.[30]

Prize money

The 2015 season of the IPL offered a total prize money of ₹40 crore (US$6.1 million), with the winning
team netting ₹15 crore (US$2.3 million).[31] The first and second runners up received 10 and 7.5 crores,
respectively, with the fourth placed team also winning 7.5 crores. The others teams are not awarded any
prize money. The IPL rules mandate that half of the prize money must be distributed among the
players.[32]

Rules

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.[33]

Teams

Current teams

Team City Home ground Debut Current Coach Current Captain

Chennai Super Kings Chennai, Tamil Nadu M. A. Chidambaram Stadium / Maharashtra Cricket
Association Stadium 2008 Stephen Fleming MS Dhoni

Delhi Daredevils Delhi Feroz Shah Kotla Ground 2008 Ricky Ponting Shreyas Iyer

Kings XI Punjab Mohali, Punjab PCA Stadium / Holkar Stadium 2008 Brad Hodge Ravichandran
Ashwin

Kolkata Knight Riders Kolkata, West Bengal Eden Gardens 2008 Jacques Kallis Dinesh Karthik

Mumbai Indians Mumbai, Maharashtra Wankhede Stadium 2008 Mahela Jayawardene

Rohit Sharma
Rajasthan Royals Jaipur, Rajasthan Sawai Mansingh Stadium 2008 Paddy Upton
Ajinkya Rahane

Royal Challengers Bangalore Bangalore, Karnataka M. Chinnaswamy Stadium 2008 Daniel

Vettori Virat Kohli

Sunrisers Hyderabad Hyderabad, Telangana Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium 2013
Tom Moody Kane Williamson

Former teams

Team City Home ground Debut Dissolved

Deccan Chargers Hyderabad, Telangana Rajiv Gandhi Cricket Stadium 2008 2012

Gujarat Lions Rajkot, Gujarat SCA Stadium 2016 2017

Kochi Tuskers Kerala Kochi, Kerala Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium 2011 2011

Pune Warriors India Pune, Maharashtra MCA Stadium 2011 2013

Rising Pune Supergiant Pune, Maharashtra MCA Stadium 2016 2017

Timeline of IPL Teams[show]

Tournament seasons and results

Main articles: List of Indian Premier League seasons and results and List of Indian Premier League
records and statistics

Out of the thirteen teams that have played in the Indian Premier League since its inception, one team
has won the competition three times, two teams have won the competition twice each and three other
teams have won it once each. The Mumbai Indians are the most successful team in league's history in
terms of the number of titles won. The Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders have won two
titles each, and the other three teams who have won the tournament are the Deccan Chargers,
Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad. The current champions are Mumbai Indians who beat Rising
Pune Supergiant in the final of the 2017 season to secure their third title and thus became the most
successful team in IPL history ever.

IPL season results[34][35]

Season Final Final venue Number of teams Player of the series

Winner Winning margin Runner-up

2008

Details Rajasthan Royals[36]

164/7 (20 overs) Won by 3 wickets

(Scorecard) Chennai Super Kings[36]

163/5 (20 overs) DY Patil Stadium[36] 8[37] Shane Watson[36]

2009

Details Deccan Chargers[38]

143/6 (20 overs) Won by 6 runs

(Scorecard) Royal Challengers Bangalore[38]

137/9 (20 overs) Wanderers Stadium[38]

(South Africa) 8[39] Adam Gilchrist[38]

2010

Details Chennai Super Kings[40]

168/5 (20 overs) Won by 22 runs

(Scorecard) Mumbai Indians[40]

146/9 (20 overs) DY Patil Stadium[40] 8[41] Sachin Tendulkar[40]

2011

Details Chennai Super Kings[42]

205/5 (20 overs) Won by 58 runs

(Scorecard) Royal Challengers Bangalore[42]

147/8 (20 overs) M. A. Chidambaram Stadium[42] 10[43] Chris Gayle[42]

2012

Details Kolkata Knight Riders[44]

192/5 (19.4 overs) Won by 5 wickets

(Scorecard) Chennai Super Kings[44]

190/3 (20 overs) M. A. Chidambaram Stadium[44] 9[45] Sunil Narine[44]

2013

Details Mumbai Indians[46]

148/9 (20 overs) Won by 23 runs

(Scorecard) Chennai Super Kings[46]

125/9 (20 overs) Eden Gardens[46] 9[47] Shane Watson[46]

2014

Details Kolkata Knight Riders[48]

200/7 (19.3 overs) Won by 3 wickets

(Scorecard) Kings XI Punjab[48]

199/4 (20 overs) M. Chinnaswamy Stadium[48] 8[49] Glenn Maxwell[48]

2015

Details Mumbai Indians[50]

202/5 (20 overs) Won by 41 runs

(Scorecard) Chennai Super Kings[50]

161/8 (20 overs) Eden Gardens[50] 8[51] Andre Russell[50]

2016

Details Sunrisers Hyderabad[52]

208/7 (20 overs) Won by 8 runs

(Scorecard) Royal Challengers Bangalore[52]

200/7 (20 overs) M. Chinnaswamy Stadium[52] 8[53] Virat Kohli[52]

2017

Details Mumbai Indians[54]

129/8 (20 overs) Won by 1 run

(Scorecard) Rising Pune Supergiant[54]

128/6 (20 overs) Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium[54] 8[55] Ben Stokes[54]

Team's performances

Team \ Host 2008

(8) 2009

(8) 2010

(8) 2011

(10) 2012

(9) 2013

(9) 2014

(8) 2015

(8) 2016

(8) 2017
(8) 2018

(8)

India South Africa India India India India India

United Arab Emirates India India India India

Chennai Super Kings 2nd SF 1st 1st 2nd 2nd 3rd 2nd Sus. Sus.

Delhi Daredevils SF SF 5th 10th 3rd 9th 8th 7th 6th 6th

Deccan Chargers† 8th 1st 4th 7th 8th

Gujarat Lions† 3rd 7th

Kings XI Punjab SF 5th 8th 5th 6th 6th 2nd 8th 8th 5th

Kochi Tuskers Kerala† 8th

Kolkata Knight Riders 6th 8th 6th 4th 1st 7th 1st 5th 4th 3rd

Mumbai Indians 5th 7th 2nd 3rd 4th 1st 4th 1st 5th 1st

Pune Warriors India† 9th 9th 8th

Rajasthan Royals 1st 6th 7th 6th 7th 3rd 5th 4th Sus. Sus.

Rising Pune Supergiant† 7th 2nd

Royal Challengers Bangalore 7th 2nd 3rd 2nd 5th 5th 7th 3rd 2nd
8th

Sunrisers Hyderabad 4th 6th 6th 1st 4th

†No longer exists.

Awards

Main article: List of Indian Premier League awards

Orange Cap

Main article: Orange Cap

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.[56]

Purple Cap

Main article: Purple Cap

The Purple Cap is awarded to the top wicket-taker in the IPL. 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.[57]

Financials

Title sponsorship

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 for five seasons.[58] After the conclusion of the 2012 season, PepsiCo
bought the title sponsorship rights for ₹396.8 crore for the subsequent five seasons.[59] 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.[60] The BCCI
then transferred the title sponsorship rights for the remaining two seasons of the contract to Chinese
smartphone manufacturer Vivo for ₹190 crore.[61] In June 2017, Vivo retained the rights for the next
five seasons (2018–2022) with a winning bid of ₹2199 crore, in a deal more expensive than Barclays'
Premier League title sponsorship contract between 2013 and 2016.[62][63]

Title sponsor Period Sponsorship fee (per year)

India DLF 2008–2012 ₹40 crores

United States Pepsi 2013–2015 ₹79.2 crores

China Vivo 2016–2017 ₹95 crores

2018–2022 ₹439.8 crores

Brand value

The IPL has seen a spike in its brand valuation to US$5.3 billion after the 10th edition, according to
global valuation and corporate finance advisor Duff & Phelps.[64] The brand value of IPL was estimated
to be US$5.3 billion in 2017 by American Appraisal, a Division of Duff & Phelps.[65] Duff & Phelps added
that the value of brand IPL has jumped to $4.16 billion after the 2016 edition, against $3.54 billion in
2015. The 19% jump is despite the fact that the US dollar to Indian rupee currency has depreciated by
nearly 10%.[66]

Team Valuation as on 2017[67],

Team Brand Value in US$

Kolkata Knight Riders 99 million

Mumbai Indians 106 million

Sunrisers Hyderabad 56 million

Royal Challengers Bangalore 88 million

Delhi Daredevils 44 million

Kings XI Punjab 41 million

Chennai Super Kings Not Calculated1

Rajasthan Royals Not Calculated1

1As they were suspended from IPL in 2016 and 2017 versions.

Broadcasting

The IPL's broadcast rights were originally held by a partnership between Sony Pictures Networks and
World Sport Group, under a ten-year contract valued at US$1.026 billion. Sony would be responsible for
domestic television, while WSG would handle international distribution.[68][69] The initial plan was for
20% of these proceeds to go to the IPL, 8% as prize money and 72% would be distributed to the
franchisees from 2008 until 2012, after which the IPL would go public and list its shares.[70] However, in
March 2010, IPL decided not to go public and list its shares.[citation needed] As of the 2016 season,
Sony MAX, Sony SIX, and Sony ESPN served as the domestic broadcasters of the IPL; MAX and SIX aired
broadcasts in Hindi, while SIX also aired broadcasts in the Bengali, Tamil, and Telugu languages. Sony
ESPN broadcast English-language feeds.[71]

The IPL became a major television property within India; Sony MAX typically became the most-watched
television channel in the country during the tournament,[72] and by 2016, annual advertising revenue
surpassed ₹1,200 crore. Viewership numbers were expected to increase further during the 2016 season
due to the industry adoption of the new BARC ratings system, which also calculates rural viewership
rather than only urban markets.[73][71] In the 2016 season, Sony's broadcasts achieved just over 1
billion impressions (television viewership in thousands), jumping to 1.25 billion the following year.[72]
Sony also broadcast a companion talk show, Extraaa Innings T20.[74]

On 4 September 2017, it was announced that the then-current digital rightsholder, Star India (a
subsidiary of 21st Century Fox), had acquired the global media rights to the IPL under a five-year
contract beginning in 2018. Valued at ₹16,347.5 crore (₹163.475 billion, US$2.55 billion, £1.97 billion), it
is a 158% increase over the previous deal, and the most expensive broadcast rights deal in the history of
cricket. The IPL sold the rights in packages for domestic television, domestic digital, and international
rights; although Sony held the highest bid for domestic television, and Facebook had made a US$600
million bid for domestic digital rights (which U.S. media interpreted as a sign that the social network was
interested in pursuing professional sports rights),[75][76] Star was the only bidder out of the shortlist of
14 to make bids in all three categories.[77][78][79]
Star CEO Uday Shankar stated that the IPL was a "very powerful property", and that Star would "remain
very committed to make sure that the growth of sports in this country continues to be driven by the
power of cricket". He went on to say that "whoever puts in that money, they put in that money because
they believe in the fans of the sport. The universe of cricket fans, it tells you, continues to very healthy,
continues to grow. What was paid in 2008, that was 2008. India and cricket and IPL—all three have
changed dramatically in the last 10 years. It is a reflection of that."[78][77][79] The deal led to concerns
that Star India now held a monopoly on cricket rights in the country, as it is also the rightsholder of ICC
competitions and the Indian national team.[80]

For its inaugural season, Star aimed to put a larger focus on widening the IPL's appeal with a "core"
cricket audience. The network aimed to broadcast at least two hours of IPL-related programming daily
from January until the start of the season, having organized televised announcements of player
retention selections and new team captains. Viewership of the player auction, which featured pre- and
post-auction reactions and analysis, increased six-fold to 46.5 million. In March, Star Sports broadcast
Game Plan: In Your City specials from the home city of each of the IPL's franchises. Star Sports stated
that its in-season coverage and studio programming would focus more on the game itself and behind-
the-scenes coverage of the IPL's teams, rather than trying to incorporate irrelevant entertainment
elements. The network introduced a new studio program known as The Dugout, which broadcasts
coverage of matches with analysis from a panel of experts.[81]