The Indian Premier LeagueThe Indian Premier League (often abbreviated as IPL), is a Twenty20 cricket competition initiated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and supervised by BCCI Vice President Lalit Modi, Chairman & Commissioner for IPL. It presently includes 8 teams or "franchises" consisting of players from different countries. The number of teams would be increased to 10 in 2011. The first season of the Indian Premier League commenced on 18 April 2008.
The third season of IPL started in India on 12 March 2010 and is due to last over a period of 45 days.[3] Five new venues, Cuttack, Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam, Ahmedabad and Dharamsala, have been added[4][5]. Other changes include removal of icon players[6] and granting permission to players who were involved in the Indian Cricket League to play in the tournament.[7] Also, it will be the first sporting event ever to be broadcast live on the popular video sharing website Youtube.[8]
History
[edit] Inaugural season
Main article: 2008 Indian Premier League
A Chennai vs Kolkata match in progress at the M.A. Chidambaram Cricket Stadium
The tournament started on 18 April 2008 in Bangalore and lasted for 46 days with 59 matches scheduled, out of which 58 took place and 1 was washed out due to rain. Each team played every other both at home and away in a round robin system. The top four ranking sides progressed to the knockout stage of semi-finals followed by a final. Rajasthan Royals emerged as the inaugural IPL champions.
Second seasonMain article: 2009 Indian Premier League
The 2009 season coincided with the general elections in India. Due to concerns regarding players' security, the venue was shifted to South Africa. The format of the tournament remained the same as the inaugural one. Deccan Chargers came out as eventual winners of the tournament.
Third seasonMain article: 2010 Indian Premier League
The third season opened in January 2010 with the auction for players. 66 players were on offer but only 11 players were sold[9]. No player from Pakistan was selected[10], leading to an international political row, with Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik suggesting that the Pakistani players had been "insulted"[11]. Indian External Affairs minister SM Krishna clarified that "The government has nothing to do with the selection of players for sporting events."[11]. In this season, defending Champions Deccan Chargers will not play at their preferred home location of Hyderabad or Visakhapatnam due to the ongoing political crisis in the region. The new bases for the champions this season are to be Nagpur and Cuttack
Fourth season
Main article: 2011 Indian Premier League
On March 21st 2010 it was announced that 2 new teams from Pune and Kochi will be added to the IPL from next season. This will increase the number of franchises from 8 to 10 and the number of matches from 60 to 94.
[edit] Franchisees
The winning bidders for the eight franchises were announced on 24 January 2008.[12] While the total base price for auction was US $400 million, the auction fetched US $723.59 million.[13]
On March 21, 2010, Pune and Kochi were unveiled as the two new franchises 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 franchise was bought by Rendezvous Sports World Limited for $333.3 million. The process was to have been completed on March 7 but was postponed by two weeks after the bidders and the BCCI objected to stiff financial clauses.[14] The second franchise auction fetched total $703 million.
Main articles: Royal Challengers Bangalore, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils, Deccan Chargers, Kolkata Knight Riders, Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians, and Rajasthan Royals
The first players' auctions were held on 20 February 2008. The IPL placed icon status on a select few marquee Indian players. These players were Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, and Virender Sehwag. VVS Laxman initially named an icon player, later voluntarily opted out of his icon status to give his team (Deccan Chargers) more money to bid for players.[15] For the second season, auctions were also held, but free signings taking place in the off-season by franchises led to calls for a draft-like system where the lowest ranked teams would be given a first opportunity to sign players. Nagpur
[edit] Television rights and sponsorships
The IPL is predicted to bring the BCCI income of approximately US$1.6 billion, over a period of five to ten years. All of these revenues are directed to a central pool, 40% of which will go to IPL itself, 54% to franchisees and 6% as prize money. The money will be distributed in these proportions until 2017, after which the share of IPL will be 50%, franchisees 45% and prize money 5%. The IPL signed up Kingfisher Airlines as the official umpire partner for the series in a Rs. 106 crore (1.06 billion) deal. This deal sees the Kingfisher Airlines brand on all umpires' uniforms and also on the giant screens during third umpire decisions.[16]
[edit] Television rights
On 15 January 2008 it was announced that a consortium consisting of India's Sony Entertainment Television network and Singapore-based World Sport Group secured the global broadcasting rights of the Indian Premier League.[17] The record deal has a duration of ten years at a cost of US $1.026 billion. As part of the deal, the consortium will pay the BCCI US $918 million for the television broadcast rights and US $108 million for the promotion of the tournament.[18] This deal was challenged in the Bombay High Court by IPL, and got the ruling on its side. After losing the battle in court, Sony Entertainment Television signed a new contract with BCCI with Sony Entertainment Television paying a staggering Rs. 8700 crores (87 billion) for 10 years. One of the reasons for payment of this huge amount is seen as the money required to subsidize IPL's move to South Africa which will be substantially more than the previous IPL. IPL had agreed to subsidize the difference in operating cost between India and South Africa as it decided to move to the African nation after the security concerns raised because of its coincidence with India's general elections.
20% of these proceeds would go to IPL, 8% as prize money and 72% would be distributed to the franchisees. The money would be distributed in these proportions until 2012, after which the IPL would go public and list its shares.[19]
Sony-WSG then re-sold parts of the broadcasting rights geographically to other companies. Below is a summary of the broadcasting rights around the world.
On 4 March 2010 ITV announced it had secured the United Kingdom television rights for the 2010 Indian Premier League. ITV will televise 59 of the 60 IPL matches on its ITV4 free to air channel.[20]
Winning Bidder Regional Broadcast Rights Terms of Deal
Sony/World Sport Group
Global Rights, India 10 years at Rs 8700 crores (revised)[17]
ONE HD Free-to-air HD and SD television in Australia. Owned by Network TEN. 5 years at AUD 10-15 Million.[21]
Sky Network Television New Zealand broadcast rights Terms not released
Astro Malaysia broadcast rights on pay channel Astro Box Office Sport 2. Terms not released
Arab Digital Distribution Middle East broadcast rights on ADD's CricOne channel. Will broadcast to United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, Libya and Nigeria. 10 Years, terms not released.[22]
Willow TV Rights to distribute on television, radio, broadband and Internet, for the IPL in North America. 5 years, terms not released.[23]
DirecTV United States Exclusive broadcast rights on pay channel CricketTicket. Terms not released
SuperSport
South Africa, Central Africa and Nigeria broadcast rights Terms not released
GEO Super
Pakistan broadcast rights Terms not released
Asian Television Network
Canadian broadcast rights. Aired on Pay-per-view channel.Aired on XM Radio's ATN-Asian Radio as well. 5 years, terms not released.[24]
ITV
United Kingdom broadcast rights, broadcast on ITV4 Terms not released
[edit] Sponsorships
India's biggest property developer DLF Group paid US$50 million to be the title sponsor of the tournament for 5 years from 2008 to 2013.[25]
[edit] Revenue and Profits
The UK-based brand consultancy, Brand Finance, has valued the IPL at $4.1 billion.[26]
There are disputed figures for the profitability of the teams. One analyst said that four teams out of the eight made a profit in 2009.[27] While the London Times said that all but Kings XI Punjab made a profit.[28]
In 2010, the IPL expects to have 80 official merchandising deals. It has signed a deal with Swiss watchmaker Bandelier to make official watches for the IPL.[29]
[edit] Official IPL Mobile Applications
DCI Mobile Studios (A division of Dot Com Infoway Limited), in conjunction with Sigma Ventures of Singapore, have jointly acquired the rights to be the exclusive Mobile Application partner and rights holder for the Indian Premier League cricket matches worldwide for the next 8 years (including the 2017 season). Recently, they have released the IPL T20 Mobile applications for iPhone, Nokia Smartphones and Blackberry devices. Soon it will be made available across all other major Mobile platforms including the Android, Windows Mobile, Palm & others.[30]
[edit] Global following
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In India, the IPL has become one of the most popular events of the year[31]. In the first season, games were played every night (including weekdays) during Indian prime-time and were broadcast live. The IPL was the most watched TV program in India. [32] A lot of women who used to watch soap operas, tuned in to watch the IPL instead.
Around the world, reception has been mostly positive. In Pakistan the reception was described by Pakistani cricinfo editor Osman Samiuddin as "massive", suggesting that it attracted even non-regular cricket followers and that the popularity of the Kolkata Knight Riders was great.[33] GEO Super telecasted the matches live and also included a popular show called Inside IPL. A similar positive reaction was seen in Sri Lanka, with interest in the Mumbai Indians being large due to the presence of cricket hero Sanath Jayasuriya. Cricket followers in Bangladesh also reacted positively, despite only one Bangladeshi player being involved. The Knight Riders were the most popular team. These subcontinental countries were also helped with the fact that the time-slot of the matches fitted in with prime time in these nations.
South Africa has seen massive viewership of the IPL, with a large number simply supported Mumbai Indians because of the presence of Shaun Pollock. In England, the IPL did not obviously overcome the power of Premier League, but was generally considered to be popular. The tournament is especially very popular with the Asian population.
In the West Indies, the IPL became so popular that it, according to Vaneisa Baksh, threatened to overtake test cricket completely in 'certain sections of West Indian fans'. While free-to-air coverage has not been complete and it has not ignited passions, it has remained a popular watch.
The IPL was less popular in Australia and New Zealand, mainly due to the time zone differences. Nevertheless, the IPL consistently won its free-to-air time-slot of 8:30 P.M. and 12:30 A.M. Australian Eastern Time, and 10:30 P.M. and 2:30 A.M. New Zealand Time for subscription TV. A large number of people from both these Pacific countries watch the IPL matches in pubs and bars.
Snap polls indicated that more than 48 million people watched the telecast of the IPL 2008 final between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings), more than 40 million people saw the Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Daredevils match, whereas the second semi-final between Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab attracted an audience of 29 million.[34]
[edit] Rules
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The official rules for the tournament are here.
There are five ways that a franchise can acquire a player. In the annual auction, buying domestic players, signing uncapped players through trading and buying replacements.[35][36] In the trading window the player can only be traded with his consent. The franchise will have to pay the difference between the old contract price and the new contract price. If the new contract is worth more than the older one then the difference will be shared between the player and the franchise selling the player.[37]
Some of the Team composition rules are:
* Minimum squad strength of 16 players plus one physio and a coach.
* No more than 8 foreign players in the squad and at most 4 in the playing XI.For the 2009 edition franchises are allowed 10 foreign players in the squad. The number allowed in the playing XI remains unchanged at 4.
* A minimum of 8 local players must be included in each team.
* A minimum of 2 players from the BCCI under-22 pool in each team.
The total spending cap for a franchisee in the first player auction was US $5m. Under-22 players are to be remunerated with a minimum annual salary of US $20,000 while for others it is US $50,000.
[edit] Official website
The IPL negotiated a contract with the Canadian company Live Current Media Inc. to run and operate its portals and the minimum guarantee has been negotiated at US $50 million over the next 10 years.[38] The official website of the tournament is www.iplt20.com.
Incorporating popular forms of social media into the third season of the IPL, the website now contains a more holistic presence across all online mediums. The website apart from featuring new additions to empower user interaction, has encouraged a wider range of websites around IPL like IPL Tracker[1] and IPL Mag[2] amongst other more traditional reporting websites.
[edit] Statistics and records
Main article: List of statistics and records of Indian Premier League
[edit] Controversies
The BCCI had found itself in the middle of many conflicts with various cricket boards around the world as a result of the IPL. The main point of contention was that signed players should always be available to their country for international tours, even if it overlaps with the IPL season. To address this, the BCCI officially requested that the ICC institute a time period in the International Future Tours Program solely for the IPL season. This request was not granted at a subsequent meeting held by the ICC.[39]
[edit] Conflicts with the England and Wales Cricket Board
Because the inaugural IPL season coincided with the County Championship season as well as New Zealand's tour of England, the ECB and county cricket clubs raised their concerns to the BCCI over players. The ECB made it abundantly clear that they would not sign No Objection Certificates for players—a prerequisite for playing in the IPL. Chairmen of the county clubs also made it clear that players contracted to them were required to fulfill their commitment to their county. As a result of this, Dimitri Mascarenhas was the only English player to have signed with the IPL for the 2008 season.[40]
A result of the ECB’s concerns about players joining the IPL, was a proposed radical response of creating their own Twenty20 tournament that would be similar in structure to the IPL. The league — titled the English Premier League — would feature 21 teams in three groups of seven and would occur towards the end of the summer season.[41] The ECB enlisted the aid of Texas billionaire Allen Stanford to launch the proposed league.[42] Stanford was the brains behind the successful Stanford 20/20, a tournament that has run twice in the West Indies. On 17 February 2009, when news of the fraud investigation against Stanford became public, the ECB and WICB withdrew from talks with Stanford on sponsorship.[43][44] On February 20 the ECB announced it has severed its ties with Stanford and cancelled all contracts with him.[45]
[edit] Conflicts with Cricket Australia
The BCCI also experienced run-ins with Cricket Australia (CA) over player availability for Australia’s 2008 tour of the West Indies and CA’s desire for global protection of their sponsors. CA had feared that sponsors of the IPL (and its teams) that directly competed with their sponsors would jeopardize already existing arrangements. This issue was eventually resolved [46] and it was also agreed upon that Australian players would be fully available for the West Indies tour.
[edit] Conflicts with the Pakistan Cricket Board
Many players from the Pakistan Cricket Team who were not offered renewed central contracts (or decided to reject new contracts) decided to join the rival Indian Cricket League (ICL). Two such players—Naved-ul-Hasan and Mushtaq Ahmed also held contracts with English Counties. The PCB decided to issue No Objection Certificates for these players to play with their county teams on the basis that since they were no longer contracted to the PCB, there was no point in not granting them their NOCs. The latter did not sit well with the BCCI, as it went against the hard line stance they had taken on players who joined the ICL.[citation needed]
After the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the Pakistan government deemed it unsafe for its players to travel to India for the IPL. However, when the IPL was shifted to South Africa, the Pakistani players requested the IPL organizers and Lalit Modi to allow them to play but they refused by reasoning that the squads had already been decided and there was no room for Pakistani players.[citation needed]
Recently in the 2010 IPL auction nobody bid on any of the Pakistani cricketers, despite having expressed an interest in them therefore having them put on the auction list. Initially they said that the decision was purely based on cricket implying that the Pakistanis were not up to standard, the Pakistani team had won the 2009 T20 World Cup. There was speculation that the Pakistanis might have been denied visas, so a team would waste money by recruiting them. After questioning, the IPL board members said that the reasoning behind none of the Pakistani players being selected was simply natural and unaffected by any outside influences.
[edit] Conflicts with other Boards
Smaller boards like the WICB and NZCB have raised concerns over the impact the IPL will have on their player development and already fragile financial situation. Since players from smaller cricketing nations are not compensated as much, they have more motivation to join the IPL.[citation needed]
[edit] Media restrictions
Initially the IPL enforced strict guidelines to media covering Premier League matches, consistent with their desire to use the same model sports leagues in North America use in regards to media coverage. Notable guidelines imposed included the restriction to use images taken during the event unless purchased from cricket.com, owned by Live Current Media Inc (who won the rights to such images) and the prohibition of live coverage from the cricket grounds. Media agencies also had to agree to upload all images taken at IPL matches to the official website. This was deemed unacceptable by print media around the world. Upon the threat of boycott, the IPL eased up on several of the restrictions.[47] On 15 April 2008 a revised set of guidelines offering major concessions to the print media and agencies was issued by the IPL and accepted by the Indian Newspaper Society.[48]
Even with the amended restrictions, specialist cricket websites such as cricinfo and cricket365 continued to be banned from providing live coverage from the grounds and from purchasing match images from press agencies. As a result, on 18 April several major international agencies including Reuters and AFP announced their decision to provide no coverage of the IPL.[49]
[edit] Conflict with Cricket Club of India
As per IPL rules, the winner of the previous competition decides the venue for the finals.[50] In 2009, the reigning Champions, Deccan Chargers chose the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.[50] However, a dispute regarding use of the pavilion meant that no IPL matches could be held there. The members of the Cricket Club of India that owns the stadium have the sole right to the pavilion on match days, whereas the IPL required the pavilion for its sponsors.[51] The members were offered free seats in the stands, however the club rejected the offer, stating that members could not be moved out of the pavilion
