The IPL is a Twenty20 cricket tournament which was inaugurated in 2008.

During the same period Zee "Indian Cricket League" was operational. Twenty20 cricket was first introduced at a competitive level by the England and Wales cricket board in 2003 but the Indian Premier League is largely credited with being the institution that projected the format of the game onto the world stage.The Indian Premier League was initiated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and has been an enormous success. The annual tournament, played in the months of April and May has gone from strength to strength and is largely viewed as being the 'richest' tournament in world cricket. There are the eight franchises that field teams to play in the IPL (in brackets original cost of franchise in $/million): Chennai Super Kings, CSK (91) Delhi Daredevils, DD (84) Kings XI Punjab, KXIP (76) Kolkata Knight Riders, KKR (75.1) Mumbai Indians, MI (111.9) Rajasthan Royals, RR (67) Royal Challengers Bangalore, RCB (111.6) Sunrisers Hyderabad, SRH (159)

The following three teams have played in the IPL but due to financial constraints have ceased to exist: Pune Warriors India, PWI (370) Kochi Tuskers Kerala, KTK (333) Deccan Chargers, DC (107)

Until 2012, the Indian Premier League was sponsored by DLF after they paid $50 million for the five year sponsorship. Pepsi will take over the contract for the 2013 IPL after paying close to 4 billion rupees for the 5 year contract. In 2008, Sony paid $1 billion for the broadcasting rights over a ten year period. The IPL is watched across the world and in 2010 made history by becoming the first sporting event to be broadcast live on YouTube. The Indian Premier League has had its controversies over the year, with Lalit Modi being suspended as chairman and Commissioner of the IPL on 2 April 2010 for what were deemed alleged acts of independent misdemeanours. Recently the player Mohnis Mishra was suspended from the game after becoming embroiled in a match fixing scandal during the 2012 tournament. The tournament is the largest, best known and most prestigious Twenty20 tournament in cricket.

First season[edit]
Main article: 2008 Indian Premier League The inaugural season of the tournament ran from 18 April 2008 to 1 June 2008. The group stages featured eight teams playing each other twice once at home and once away with the top four overall progressing to the semi-finals..

The final was played in DY Patil Stadium, Nerul, Navi Mumbai. The first winner of the IPL was Rajasthan Royals, who beat Chennai Super Kings in a match that went down to the last ball. Rajasthan's Shane Watson was named player of the tournament. Brendon McCullum scored the first century in the IPL.

Second season[edit]
Main article: 2009 Indian Premier League The 2009 Indian Premier League season, also known as IPL 2, was the second season of the Indian Premier League. The tournament was held in South Africa because of the General elections in India and was played for 37 days from 18 April to 24 May 2009. The top four ranking sides progressed to the knockout stage of semi-finals followed by a final. Deccan Chargers beat Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final (these two were placed 8th and 7th respectively in the standings of previous season).

Third season[edit]
Main article: 2010 Indian Premier League The third season returned to India and it was the first IPL tournament that was broadcast live on YouTube. The final four matches of the tournament were screened in 3D across movie halls in India. Chennai Super Kings defeated Mumbai Indians in the finals to win their first title. Lalit Modi was ousted by BCCI as the so-called Commissioner of IPL.

Fourth season[edit]
Main articles: 2011 Indian Premier League and List of 2011 Indian Premier League personnel changes On 21 March 2010, it was announced in Chennai that two new teams from Pune and Kochi will be added to the IPL for the fourth season. However, the bid around the Kochi franchise turned controversial resulting in the resignation of minister, Shashi Tharoor from the Central Government and investigations by various departments of the Government of India into the financial dealings of IPL and the other existing franchises. Later, Lalit Modi was also removed from IPL chairmanship by BCCI. On 5 December 2010, it [9] was confirmed that Kochi will take part in the fourth season of IPL. The addition of teams representing Sahara's Pune Warriors India and the Kochi Tuskers Kerala was to have increased the number of franchises from 8 to 10. The BCCI originally considered extending the tournament format used in previous season to ten teams, which would increase the number of matches from 60 to 94. Instead, the round-robin stage of the tournament was to have been replaced by a group [10] stage with two groups of five, limiting the number of matches to 74. But this format was replaced by another one in which each team would play 5 other teams in a two-way round robin format and there would be 2 teams against whom they would play only at home and remaining 2 teams against which they would play only away matches.Thus each team plays 14 matches.Top four teams would qualify for the semi-finals. In October 2010, Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab had their franchises terminated for breaching ownership rules. The new Kochi franchise was also issued a warning to resolve all their ownership [11] disputes. Two months later both teams were finally allowed to take part in the 2011 edition after a court [12] ruling. Chennai Super Kings won their second consecutive title after defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore by [13] 58 runs in the final. This was the first time a franchise has won two titles.

Fifth season[edit]
Main articles: 2012 Indian Premier League and List of 2012 Indian Premier League personnel changes The fifth season featured nine teams after the termination of the Kochi franchise. The players auction was held on 4 February 2012. This season saw an increase in the allowed maximum number of players in each squad from 30 to 33. The season of 76 matches began and ended in Chennai, Tamil Nadu with the [14] opening match on 4 April and the final on 27 May. Delhi Daredevils,Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings qualified for the playoffs. The final of the season was played at the Chidambaram Stadium on 27 May, where the defending champions Chennai Super Kings played against the Kolkata Knight Riders. Kolkata Knight Riders won the match in the last over riding on the backs of Manoj Tiwary and Shakib Al Hasan with 5 wickets and 2 balls to spare. This edition of the IPL was the most competitive with 14 matches producing results in the very last over, [15][16] and a couple in the last ball. Towards the end of the league, the season faced various hurdles including a spot fixing case, which allegedly included five players caught on a sting operation carried on [17][18] by a local news channel; India TV.

Sixth season[edit]
Rank Player Matches

Suresh Raina

99

Rohit Sharma

97

MS Dhoni

96

Subramaniam Badrinath

95

Virat Kohli

93

Dinesh Karthik

92

Yusuf Pathan

91

Robin Uthappa

91

Jacques Kallis

90

10

Rahul Dravid

89

Main articles: 2013 Indian Premier League and List of 2013 Indian Premier League personnel changes Pepsi replaced DLF as the title sponsor. Nine teams are participating in the sixth season. The sixth season opened on 3 April 2013 with the player auction broadcast on Sony SIX. 108 players were on offer but only 37 players were sold for US$11.87 million. The Australian all-rounderGlenn Maxwell was the only million dollar buy. The Deccan Chargers franchise having been terminated by the IPL governing council, had their spot taken by Sunrisers Hyderabad. The new team retains most of the players from the Deccan Chargers. The tournament is scheduled to run from 3 April to 26 May 2013 with Kolkata and New Delhi hosting the playoffs. Kolkata's Eden Gardens will host the first match as well as the final as they were the champions of the 2012 season. Due to protests in the state of Tamil Nadu, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa has requested the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh not to allow any Sri Lankan players, umpires or any other support staff to play in IPL matches to be held in Chennai. Controversy hit IPL again with 3 players (Ajit Chandila, Ankeet Chavan and Sreesanth) arrested by the Mumbai police on 16 May on charges ofspot-fixing. Vindu Dara Singh was also arrested on charges of spot-fixing and alleged links to bookies during IPL 6. Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad were the four teams in the league stage to qualify for the playoffs. On 21 May 2013, Chennai Super Kings defeated Mumbai Indians in the first qualifier in New Delhi by 48 runs as they regained their shattered confidence against mighty MI who have thrashed them in [19] preliminary stages. On the same day, Pune franchisee owner Sahara Group (owner of Pune Warriors India) decided to pull out of IPL. This decision was taken after Sahara failed to pay IPL dues. On 22 May 2013, Rajasthan Royals defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad in the eliminator in New Delhi by 4 [20] wickets. On 24 May 2013, Mumbai Indians defeated Rajasthan Royals in the second qualifier and faced Chennai Super Kings in the Final. On 26 May 2013, Mumbai Indians defeated Chennai Super Kings by 23 runs for their first title win. Shane Watson was named man of the tournament.

Seventh season[edit]
Main articles: 2014 Indian Premier League and List of 2014 Indian Premier League personnel changes There will be eight teams this season, one fewer than 2013 after the withdrawal of the Pune Warriors India.For the second time after 2011 IPL teams were revamped with teams allowed to retain up to 5 players.7 teams retained at least 2 players from the previous squad.There is a possibility for season to be held outside India to avoid adding to the existing security demands for the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections should its dates overlap with the tournament as in 2009. The auction of players for the seventh

season of IPL is scheduled to be held on 13 and 15 February 2014 in Bangalore-India. The league will be take place from 16 April 2014 at 3 main venues- UAE, India & South Africa.

[21]

League organisation[edit]
Franchises[edit]
The winning bidders for the eight franchises (or clubs) were announced on 24 January 2008. While the [23] total base price for auction was US$400 million, the auction fetched US$723.59 million. Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers were the founding clubs of the new professional league. On 21 March 2010, teams from Pune (Pune Warriors India) and Kochi (Kochi Tuskers Kerala) were unveiled as the two new clubs for the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League. The base price was $225 million. While Pune was bought by Sahara Adventure Sports Group for $370 million, the Kochi [24] franchise was bought by Rendezvous Sports World Limited for $333.3 million. The second franchise auction fetched total $703 million. The rights to the new Hyderabad franchise were awarded to the Sun TV Network in October 2012.
[25] [22]