Indian Premier League

Indian Premier League
Dlf ipl.svg
Logo of the Indian Premier League
Countries India India
Administrator BCCI
Headquarter Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Format Twenty20
First tournament 2008
Last tournament 2010
Tournament format Double round-robin and Knockout
Number of teams 8
Current champion CSK Chennai Super Kings
Most successful RR Rajasthan Royals,

DC Deccan Chargers and

CSK Chennai Super Kings (1 title each)
Qualification Twenty20 Champions League
Most runs CSK Suresh Raina (1375)[1]
Most wickets DC R. P. Singh (51)[2]
Website IPLT20.com

The Indian Premier League (often abbreviated as IPL), is a domestic professional Twenty20 cricket competition in India. It was initiated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) headquartered in Mumbai[3][4] and supervised by BCCI Vice President Chirayu Amin, chairman & commissioner for IPL, and CEO, Sundar Raman. It presently includes 10 teams (franchises) consisting of players from different countries. It was started after an altercation between the BCCI and the Indian Cricket League.[5]

In 2010, IPL became the first sporting event ever to be broadcast live on the popular video sharing website YouTube.[6] Its brand value was estimated to be around $4.13 billion (over Indian rupee18,000 crore (US$ 4.09 billion)) the same year.[7][8] According to global sports salaries review, IPL is the second highest-paid league, based on first-team salaries on a pro rata basis, second only to the NBA. It is estimated that the average salary of an IPL player over a year would be £2.5 million.[9]

Contents

History

First season

A Chennai vs Kolkata match in progress at the M.A. Chidambaram Cricket Stadium

The inaugural season of the tournament started on 18 April 2008 and lasted for 46 days with 59 matches scheduled, out of which 58 took place and 1 was washed out due to rain. The final was played in DY Patil Stadium, Nerul, Navi Mumbai. Every team played each 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 defeated Chennai Super Kings in a last ball thriller and emerged as the inaugural IPL champions.

Second season

The 2009 season coincided with the general elections in India. Owing to concerns regarding players' security, the venue was shifted to South Africa. The format of the tournament remained same as the inaugural one. Deccan Chargers, who finished last in the first season, came out as eventual winners defeating the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final.

Third season

The third season opened in January 2010 with the auction for players. 66 players were on offer but only 11 players were sold. In this season, defending Champions Deccan Chargers did 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 were Nagpur, Navi Mumbai and Cuttack. Four teams qualified for the semi-finals. The first semi-final was won by Mumbai Indians who defeated Bangalore Royal Challengers by 35 runs. Chennai Super Kings defeated Deccan Chargers in the second semi-final. The final was played between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. Chennai Super Kings won by a margin of 22 runs.

Fourth season

On 21 March 2010, at Chennai 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 if the same format is used. However, the bid around the Kochi franchisee 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 franchisees. Later, Lalit Modi was also removed from IPL chairmanship by BCCI.

League organization

Franchises

The winning bidders for the eight franchises were announced on 24 January 2008.[10] While the total base price for auction was US $400 million, the auction fetched US $723.59 million.[11]

On 21 March 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 many bidders and the BCCI objected to stiff financial clauses.[12] The second franchise auction fetched total $703 million.

Franchise Owner(s) Captain Price (USD) Price (Rupees) Location Map
MI Mumbai Indians
Mukesh Ambani (Owner of Reliance Industries) Sachin Tendulkar $ 112.9 m  Indian rupee445 crore (US$ 101.02 million) 
Indian Premier League is located in India
Deccan Chargers
Kolkata Knight Riders
Delhi Daredevils
Rajasthan Royals
Mumbai Indians
Kings XI Punjab
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Chennai Super Kings
Pune Warriors*
Kochi*
IPL Franchises (* - Starting 2011)
RCB Royal Challengers Bangalore Vijay Mallya (UB Group) Anil Kumble $ 111.6 m Indian rupee440 crore (US$ 99.88 million) 
DC Deccan Chargers
Deccan Chronicle (Gayatri Reddy) Adam Gilchrist $ 107.0  m Indian rupee422 crore (US$ 95.79 million) 
CSK Chennai Super Kings India Cements (N.Srinivasan) Mahendra Singh Dhoni $ 91.90 m Indian rupee359 crore (US$ 81.49 million) 
DD Delhi Daredevils GMR Group Gautam Gambhir $ 84.0 m Indian rupee331 crore (US$ 75.14 million) 
KXIP Kings XI Punjab
Ness Wadia, Preity Zinta, Mohit Burman , Gaurav Burman (Dabur), Karan Paul (Apeejay Surendera Group), Aditya and Arvind Khanna Kumar Sangakkara $ 76.0 m Indian rupee300 crore (US$ 68.1 million) 
KKR Kolkata Knight Riders
Red Chillies Entertainment (Shahrukh Khan, Gauri Khan, Juhi Chawla and Jai Mehta) Sourav Ganguly $ 75.1 m Indian rupee296 crore (US$ 67.19 million) 
RR Rajasthan Royals Emerging Media (Lachlan Murdoch, A.R Jha and co.), Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra, Suresh and Kavita Chellaram Shane Warne $ 67.0 m Indian rupee264 crore (US$ 59.93 million) 
  Pune Warriors Sahara - $ 370.0 m Indian rupee1,702 crore (US$ 386.35 million) 
 Kochi Rendezvous Sports Limited - $ 333.0 m Indian rupee1,572 crore (US$ 356.84 million) 

Rules

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.[13][14] 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.[15]

Some of the Team composition rules are:

Some of the differences to international Twenty20 cricket:

The total spending cap for a franchisee in the first player auction was US $5 million. Under-22 players are to be remunerated with a minimum annual salary of US $20,000 while for others it is US $50,000. The most expensive players in the IPL to date are Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen at US $1.55 million each.

Statistics and records

Winners

Season Winners Runners-up Teams
2008 RR Rajasthan Royals CSK Chennai Super Kings 8
2009 DC Deccan Chargers RCB Royal Challengers Bangalore 8
2010 CSK Chennai Super Kings MI Mumbai Indians 8

Performance of teams

Team Span Titles Matches Won Lost No Result Win % For (r/o) Against (r/o) Best Worst
CSK Chennai Super Kings
2008-2010
1
47
26
20
1
56.38
4,752 / 574.4
4,475 / 569.1
Champions
Semi-finals
DC Deccan Chargers
2008-2010
1
46
19
27
0
41.29
4,637 / 580.2
4,694 / 582.4
Champions
8th of 8
DD Delhi Daredevils
2008-2010
0
44
24
19
1
54.56
4,219 / 524.5
4,330 / 547.0
Semi-finals
5th of 8
KXIP Kings XI Punjab
2008-2010
0
43
21
22
0
48.83
4,251 / 531.1
4,274 / 529.1
Semi-finals
8th of 8
KKR Kolkata Knight Riders
2008-2010
0
42
16
24
2
39.74
3,602 / 491.3
3,585 / 459.3
6th of 8
8th of 8
MI Mumbai Indians
2008-2010
0
44
23
20
1
52.28
3,977 / 505.3
3,898 / 523.1
Runners-up
7th of 8
RR Rajasthan Royals
2008-2010
1
44
25
18
1
55.81
4,289 / 554.2
4,213 / 564.2
Champions
7th of 8
RCB Royal Challengers Bangalore
2008-2010
0
46
21
25
0
45.65
4,263 / 587.3
4,521 / 574.5
Runners-up
7th of 8

Player signings

The first players' auctions were held on 2008. The IPL placed icon status on a select few marquee Indian players. These players were Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, 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.[16] 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.

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 (approximately £15 million) deal. This deal sees the Kingfisher Airlines brand on all umpires' uniforms and also on the giant screens during third umpire decisions.[17]

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.[18] 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 $108 million for the promotion of the tournament.[19] This deal was challenged in the Bombay High Court by IPL, and got the ruling on its side. After losing the battle in court, Sony Entertainment Television signed a new contract with BCCI with Sony Entertainment Television paying Indian rupee8,700 crore (US$ 1.97 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 (But recently in March 2010, IPL decided not to go public).[20]

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.[21]

Winning Bidder Regional Broadcast Rights Terms of Deal
Sony/World Sport Group
 India 10 years at Indian rupee8,700 crore (US$ 1.97 billion) (revised)[18]
ONE HD  Australia: Free-to-air HD and SD television. Owned by Network TEN. 5 years at AUD 10-15 Million.[22]
Sky Network Television  New Zealand Terms not released
PCCW  Hong Kong: Broadcast on Now Sports. 2 years, terms not released.
StarHub  Singapore: Broadcast on Cricket Extra. Terms not released
Astro  Malaysia: Broadcast Astro Box Office Sport. Terms not released
SuperSport
Central Africa

 South Africa  Niger

Terms not released
Arab Digital Distribution  United Arab Emirates,  Bahrain,  Iraq,  Jordan,  Kuwait,  Lebanon,  Oman,  Qatar, Palestinian territories Palestine,  Saudi Arabia,  Syria,  Turkey,  Algeria,  Morocco,  Tunisia,  Egypt,  Sudan,  Libya,  Nigeria

Broadcast rights on ADD's CricOne

10 Years, terms not released.[23]
GEO Super
 Pakistan Terms not released
Willow TV Rights to distribute on television, radio, broadband and Internet, for the IPL in North America. 5 years, terms not released.[24]
DirecTV  United States: Exclusive broadcast rights on CricketTicket. Terms not released
Asian Television Network
 Canada: Aired on Pay-per-view channel. Aired on XM Radio's ATN-Asian Radio as well. 5 years, terms not released.[25]
SportsMax West Indies Cricket BoardCaribbean Terms not released
ITV
 United Kingdom: Broadcast on ITV4. Terms not released

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.[26]

Other five-year sponsorship agreements include a deal with motorcycle maker Hero Honda worth $22.5-million, one with PepsiCo worth $12.5-million, and a deal with beer and airline conglomerate Kingfisher at $26.5-million.[27]

Revenue and Profits

The UK-based brand consultancy, Brand Finance, has valued the IPL at Indian rupee18,500 crore (US$ 4.2 billion) in 2010.[28] It was valued at U$2.01 billion in 2009 by the same consultancy.[29]

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.[30] While the London Times said that all but Kings XI Punjab made a profit.[31]

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.[32]

According to a recent study by a UK-based brand valuation consultancy, the brand value of the IPL has more than doubled to USD 4.13 billion (over Rs 18,000 crore) from USD 2.01 billion in 2009.[33]

The franchises have been a part of this growth. Chennai Super Kings, who were ranked fourth last year, has emerged the most valued franchise in 2010. The CSK franchise has moved up the ladder to number one with a valuation of USD 48.4 million. The Kolkata Knight Riders co-owned by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan comes in second with a valuation of USD 46 million and the Rajasthan Royals, co-owned by Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty comes in third with USD 45.2 million. The Royal Challengers Bangalore, owned by Vijay Mallya, is ranked fourth with a valuation of USD 41.9 million and is followed by the Mumbai Indians (USD 40.8 million), Delhi Daredevils (USD 40.5 million) and Kings XI Punjab ( USD 36.1 million). The Deccan Chargers are at the base with a valuation of USD 34.4 million.[34]

Rank Franchise Brand Value
1 CSK Chennai Super Kings $ 48.4 m
2 KKR Kolkata Knight Riders $ 46 m
3 RR Rajasthan Royals $ 45.2 m
4 RCB Royal Challengers Bangalore $ 41.9 m
5 MI Mumbai Indians $ 40.8 m
6 DD Delhi Daredevils $ 40.5 m
7 KXIP Kings XI Punjab $ 36.1 m
8 DC Deccan Chargers $ 34.4 m

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.[35]

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.[36] 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.

Global following

In India, the IPL has become one of the most popular events of the year[37]. 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.

IPL drew positive reactions from the rest of the world also. In Pakistan, the reception was described as "massive". The matches were telecast live in GEO Super. The matches also generated interest in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, despite only one Bangladeshi player being involved. The following in the subcontinental nations was aided by the prime time telecast of the matches as they belong to adjacent time zones.

The IPL became a big hit in South Africa due to a large composition of South Asians in their population.Another reason for the success is that the second edition of IPL was hosted at South Africa drawing massive crowds from the country as well as the other countries in the subcontinent.

The IPL did not garner much interest in Australia and New Zealand due to time differences. However, in recent times the IPL has gained a much larger fan-base in these two countries.

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.[38]

The third season of IPL saw interest rise dramatically in the United Kingdom. This was, in part, due to TV coverage switching to free to view channel ITV4. Previous editions of IPL were aired on the now defunct channel Setanta (pay to view channel), which entered administration in 2009. James Macleod stated, "We are delighted with the viewing figures for the IPL so far. The ratings for ITV4s coverage have been around seven or eight times those achieved by Setanta last year, and we're delighted to be bringing the competition to a wider audience". Lalit Modi, former Chairman and Commissioner of IPL, also expressed immense satisfaction on the way IPL has been accepted by the British audience. "ITV beats Sky Sports over the weekend in number of viewers. This is great going. The ITV numbers are double that of rugby league. This is huge by all imaginations. UK figures for viewership on ITV already 10 times that of last year. This is just fantastic news," he said.[39][40]

See also

References

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  2. "Indian Premier League / Records / Most wickets". Cricinfo. http://stats.cricinfo.com/ipl2010/engine/records/bowling/most_wickets_career.html?id=117;type=trophy. 
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  4. I-T Raids at IPL Headquarter at BCCI in Mumbai, reports NDTV
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  11. Cricinfo - Big business and Bollywood grab stakes in IPL
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  14. IPL lays down guidelines for replacements, Discusses IPL rules on buying replacement players players.
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  18. 18.0 18.1 "Sony and World Sports Group bag IPL television rights". Cricinfo. 2008-01-14. http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ipl/content/current/story/330881.html. Retrieved 2008-04-12. 
  19. "Billion dollar rights deal for IPL". The Australian. 2008-01-15. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23054747-2722,00.html. Retrieved 2008-04-12. 
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  23. ADD secures IPL telecast rights for Middle East and North Africa
  24. IPL: Willow TV gets TV rights for the Americas: Cricket Next
  25. Asian Television Network International Limited (2008-04-15). "THEY GAVE YOU NHL & NFL Now ATN Gives You IPL" (PDF). Press release. http://asiantelevision.com/pr/ATN-IPL%202008.pdf. Retrieved 2008-04-28. 
  26. "Kushal Pal Singh". Forbes.com. 03-11-09. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/10/billionaires-2009-richest-people_Kushal-Pal-Singh_0UU7.html. Retrieved 9 March 2010. 
  27. "Five-year sponsorship agreements". The Globe and Mail. 23-03-10. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/investing-at-fever-pitch-in-indias-cricket-bonanza/article1508779. Retrieved 23 March 2010. 
  28. "Stiff clauses leave only 4 in race for IPL teams". The Economic Times. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/Stiff-clauses-leave-only-4-in-race-for-IPL-teams/articleshow/5648934.cms. Retrieved 9 March 2010. 
  29. Brand IPL touches the sky. Iplt20.com
  30. IPL teams become hot commodity LiveMint article
  31. Lalit Modi ambition could create problems for IPL franchises
  32. IPL targets 80 licensing and merchandising deals this year
  33. http://www.iplt20.com/news_detail.php?id=984&category=news
  34. http://www.iplt20.com/news_detail.php?id=984&category=news
  35. DCI Mobile studios and; Sigma Ventures acquire global mobile Applications rights for IPL T20
  36. "Live Current Media Inc. and DLF Indian Premier League To Launch IPLT20.com as Official IPL Online Destination". livecurrent.com. 18 April 2008. http://www.livecurrent.com/live-current-media-inc.-and-368.html. 
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  38. About 24 Million Watched IPL Final
  39. IPL devours British TV ratings
  40. Record ratings for IPL in the UK. Iplt20.com

External links