The Indian Premier League (also known as the "DLF Indian Premier League" and often abbreviated as IPL), is a Twenty20 cricket competition created by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The first season of the Indian Premier League commenced on 18 April 2008, and ended on 1 June 2008 with the victory of the Rajasthan Royals in the final at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai.
Fixtures
Teams play each other two times in a round robin system, with equal number of home and away matches. The top four ranking sides will progress to the semi-finals.
The inaugural 2008 tournament started on 18 April 2008 in Bangalore and lasted for 46days, with 59 matches scheduled, out of which 58 took place and 1 was washed out due to rain
Television rights and sponsorship
The IPL will bring the BCCI income of US$1 billion, over a period of five to ten years, reinforcing its status as the richest board in world cricket.
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%.[3]
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.[4] 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.[5]
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.[6]
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.
| Winning Bidder | Regional Broadcast Rights | Terms of Deal |
|---|---|---|
| Sony/World Sport Group | Global Rights, India | 10 years at USD 1.026 Billion[4] |
| Network Ten | Free-to-air television in Australia | 5 years at AUD 10-15 Million.[7] |
| Sky Network Television | New Zealand broadcast rights | Terms not relesed |
| Setanta Sports | United Kingdom and Ireland on a subscription basis | 5 years, terms not disclosed.[8] |
| Arab Digital Distribution | Middle East broadcast rights on ADD's ART Prime Sport 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.[9] |
| Willow TV | Rights to distribute on television, radio, broadband and Internet, for the IPL in North America. | 5 years, terms not released.[10] |
| SuperSport | South Africa and Nigeria broadcast rights | Terms not released |
| GEO Super | Pakistan broadcast rights | Terms not released |
| Asian Television Network | Canadian broadcast rights. Aired on ATN's CBN & ATN Cricket Plus channels on a subscription basis. Aired on XM Radio's ATN-Asian Radio as well. | 5 years, terms not released.[11] |
Rules
The official rules for the tournament are here. Some of the Team composition rules are:
- Total 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.
- A minimum of 4 local players must be included in each team.
- No fewer than 4 players from the BCCI under-22 pool in each team.
The players accorded "icon" status are: Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. 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. Icon players are to be paid 15% more than the highest paid player in their respective teams.
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.[12] The official website of the tournament is iplt20.com.
Franchises
The winning bidders for the eight franchises were announced on 24 January 2008.[13] While the total base price for auction was US $400 million, the auction fetched US $723.59 million.[14] The official list of franchise owners announced and the winning bids were as follows.
| Franchise | Owner(s) | Price (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| Mumbai Indians | Reliance Industries | $111.9 million |
| Royal Challengers Bangalore | UB group | $111.6 million |
| Hyderabad Deccan Chargers | Deccan Chronicle | $107 million |
| Chennai Super Kings | India Cements and N Srinivasan | $91 million |
| Delhi Daredevils | GMR Holdings | $84 million |
| Kings XI Punjab | Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Karan Paul (Apeejay Surendera Group) and Mohit Burman (Dabur) | $76 million |
| Kolkata Knight Riders | Shahrukh Khan, Juhi Chawla Mehta and Jai Mehta (Red Chillies Entertainment) | $75.09 million |
| Rajasthan Royals | Emerging Media: (A.R Jha, Lachlan Murdoch, Suresh Chellaram) | $67 million |
Future Expansion
After the success of the first season, it has been reported that four new franchises will join the IPL in 2010-11, increasing the total number of teams to 12. The new confirmed franchises will be based in Ahmedabad and Kanpur, with Anil Ambani's name associated with the ownership of the Ahmedabad franchise, and Sahara Group is touted as the possible suitors to buy the Kanpur franchise. Other cities being linked with getting a franchisee are Patna-Ranchi joined franchisee or a team from the North-East to promote the sport in the region and possibly one team from the north-western states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarkhand. A second Mumbai or Delhi team has also been proposed for future expansion of two teams to take place in the 2012-13 season.[15]
Expansions- 2010-11 Season( 4 new teams)-
- IPL Ahmedabad
- IPL Kanpur
- Any two from the following-
1. A Patna-Ranchi joined franchisee 2. A team from the North-East 3. A team from the north-western states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarkhand
The unselected team from the 3 will be considered for the next set of expansions in the 2012-13 season.
2012-13 Season( 2 new teams)-
- The unselected 3rd team from above
- Possibly a second franchisee from Delhi's suburbs( Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, NOIDA and Greater NOIDA) and New Delhi combined
- Possibly a second franchisee from Mumbai or a new franchisee from Pune
Franchise Earnings
The first season that concluded on June 1 2008 was a huge success for the IPL. It should be noted that during the first season no one had expected the franchises to break even since most of them had invested huge amounts, but even then the table below shows that some of them are already profitable from Season 1.[16]
| Franchise | Revenues | Expenses | Profit/Loss (Rs. Crores) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mumbai Indians | a. Broadcasting Rights - 35 | a. Franchise Fees - 45 | Net Loss - 16(To be profitable in season 2) |
| Royal Challengers Bangalore | a. Broadcasting Rights - 35 | a. Franchise Fees - 48 | Net Loss - 43 |
| Hyderabad Deccan Chargers | a. Broadcasting Rights - 35 | a. Franchise Fees - 45 | Net Loss - 18 |
| Chennai Super Kings | a. Broadcasting Rights - 35 | a. Franchise Fees - 36 | Net Loss - 0.2(To be profitable in season 2) |
| Delhi Daredevils | a. Broadcasting Rights - 35 | a. Franchise Fees - 34 | Net Loss - 6.6(To be profitable in season 2) |
| Kings XI Punjab | a. Broadcasting Rights - 35 | a. Franchise Fees - 30.4 | Net Loss - 2.4(To be profitable in season 2) |
| Kolkata Knight Riders | a. Broadcasting Rights - 35 | a. Franchise Fees - 31 | Net Profit - 13 |
| Rajasthan Royals | a. Broadcasting Rights - 35 | a. Franchise Fees - 27 | Net Profit - 6 |
- All Figures are in crores (1 crore = 10,000,000)
Source: Refer 16 in reference section
Player signings
The players' auctions were held on February 20. 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.[17]
Winners
| Year | Winner | Runner Up | Lost in Semifinals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Rajasthan Royals | Chennai Super Kings | Kings XI Punjab & Delhi Daredevils |
2009 Season
Lalit Modi, Chairman & League Commissioner, DLF Indian Premier League, announced that the tentative dates for the second season of the DLF Indian Premier League will be from April 10th, 2009 to May 29th, 2009. The League Chairman and Commissioner also announced that the format of the tournament will remain the same as that of the inaugural season.
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. [18]
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 fulfil 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.[19]
Another result of the ECB’s on-going fear of players fleeing to 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. [20] The ECB enlisted the aid of Texas billionaire Allen Stanford to launch the proposed league.[21] Stanford was the brains behind the successful Stanford 20/20, a tournament that has run twice in the West Indies.
Conflicts with Cricket Australia
The BCCI also experienced run-ins with Cricket Australia (CA) over player availability for Australia’s 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 [22] and it was also agreed upon that Australian players would be fully available for the West Indies tour.
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. 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.
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.
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.[23] On April 15, 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.[24]
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.[25]
Cheerleaders
The IPL has been criticised by a few politicians and feminists for bringing in foreign cheerleaders, which is seen by many to not be in the traditional spirit of the game, as well as being against some Indian sensibilities.[26] Two cheerleaders from London were asked to leave the ground at Mohali “because of the colour of their skin” by Wizcraft International Entertainment, which handles the team Kings XI Punjab. Ellesha Newton and Sherinne Anderson, both from London and of African ancestry were allegedly barred from entering the stadium by employees of Wizcraft International Entertainment on the pretext that "people don’t like dark girls here".[27] Both the girls also allege that an employee referred to them with the racial slur ″nigger″.[28]
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said a probe would be initiated by the IPL only if the two women officially complain to IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.
BCCI and IPL officials are surprised that the two cheerleaders did not complain about the alleged racist behaviour while they were in India and spoke about it only after they returned to London.
"We have not received any complaint from any cheerleaders that they were asked to leave by the Mohali-based Kings XI Punjab franchise recently because of the colour of their skin," BCCI joint secretary M.P. Pandove said in Mohali.
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