Indian Premiere League: IPL
8 min readApr 19, 2021
- The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 cricket league, contested by eight teams based out of eight different Indian cities. The league was founded by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. It is usually held between March and May of every year and has an exclusive window in the ICC Future Tours Programme.
- IPL is a tournament which include Sponsorships and Promotions, played with eight teams, each team plays each other twice in a Home and Away as 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.
Awards of Indian Premiere League:
- Prize money: The 2020 season of the IPL offered a total prize money of ₹500 million (US$7.0 million), with the winning team netting ₹200 million (US$2.8 million). The first and second runners up received ₹125 million (US$1.8 million) and ₹87.5 million (US$1.2 million), respectively, with the fourth placed team also winning ₹87.5 million (US$1.2 million). The other teams are not awarded any prize money. The IPL rules mandate that half of the prize money must be distributed among the players.
- 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.
- Purple Cap: The Purple Cap is awarded to the top wicket-taker 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.
- Most Valuable Player (MVP): The award was called the “Man of the Tournament” till the 2012 season. The IPL introduced the Most Valuable Player rating system in 2013, the leader who performed well through the season would be named the “Most Valuable Player” at the end of the season.
- Fairplay Award: The Fair Play Award is given after each season to the team with the best record of fair play. The winner is decided on the basis of the points the umpires give to the teams. After each match, the two on-field umpires, and the third umpire, scores the performance of both the teams.
- Emerging player award: The award was presented for the “Best under-19 player” in 2008 and “Best under-23 player” in 2009 and 2010, being called “Under-23 Success of the Tournament”. In 2011 and 2012, the award was known as “Rising Star of the Year”, while, in 2013, it was called “Best Young Player of the Season”. Since 2014, the award has been called the Emerging Player of the Year.
- Most sixes award: The Maximum Sixes Award, currently known as Unacademic Let’s Crack It Sixes Award for sponsorship reasons, is presented to the batsman who hits the most sixes in a season of the IPL.
- So far, There have been thirteen seasons of the IPL tournament. The venue for the 2020 season was moved due to the COVID-19 pandemic and games were played in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The current IPL title holders are the MI, who won the 2020 season, DC are Runner-up and SRH, RCB qualified for Playoffs.
Standings of each team in IPL from 2008 to 2019:
From where IPL started:
- 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 the 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.
- 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. 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, Rajasthan, Kolkata, Mumbai and Punjab. In the end, the franchises were all sold for a total of $723.59 million. The Indian Cricket League soon folded in 2008.
- 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. Sahara Adventure Sports Group bought the Pune franchise for $370 million while Rendezvous Sports World bought the Kochi franchise for $333.3 million. 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.
- 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. 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. The team would be named Sunrisers Hyderabad.
- Pune Warriors India withdrew from the IPL on 21 May 2013 over financial differences with the BCCI. The franchise was officially terminated by the BCCI, on 26 October 2013, on account of the franchise failing to provide the necessary bank guarantee.
- 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. Then, on 8 December 2015, following an auction, it was revealed that Pune and Rajkot would replace Chennai and Rajasthan for two seasons. The two teams were the Rising Pune Supergiant and the Gujarat Lions.
- 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 contracts. 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 cannot be traded outside the trading windows or during the tournament, whereas replacements can be signed before or during the tournament. The term of a player contract is one year, with the franchise having the option to extend the contract by one or two years. 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.
- 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 ₹1 million to ₹3 million 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.
- The team composition rules (as of 2020 season) are, 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 ₹850 million (US$12 million). Under-19 players cannot 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. This allows the uncapped players to express them to gain the spot in the National side.
- In IPL, 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. Since the 2018 season, the Umpire Decision Review System is being used in all IPL matches, allowing each team one chance to review an on-field umpire’s decision per innings. In current 2021, 3rd umpire has right to call No-balls before bowling next ball. And also, the 3rd umpire can observe the short run and call it. By these competitiveness of game is increasing.
IPL Teams and Links of Blogs on each team:
