The Indian Premier League, created by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and sanctioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC), is a Twenty20 cricket competition. It is the brainchild of former BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi and is modelled along the lines of club football in Europe, which is unlike anything cricket has known in the past. The best players from around the world will not play according to their nationality but as per the market forces.

The first season of the Indian Premier League, also known as the DLF Indian Premier League, began on April 18, 2008, in Bangalore, and ended on June 1, 2008, with the victory of the Rajasthan Royals in the final at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai.

The second edition of the cash-rich event was conducted in South Africa and was won by Deccan Chargers.

The third edition returned to India and Chennai Super Kings led by MS Dhoni won the title. Dhoni, who came into the fourth season riding high on a World Cup win, successfully defended the title in 2011.

Popularity

The IPL has shifted the viewership pattern of cricket as share of women, kids and younger audience increased over other formats.

In Pakistan the reception was said to be massive, suggesting that it attracted even non-regular cricket followers. With the right mix of cricket and glamour, the high-octane drama, at one stage, seemed to be threatening Bollywood's popularity across the border. But since the Pakistani players have not been a part of the tournament for the last three years, the interest has certainly dipped.

However, in Sri Lanka it received positive reactions. Bangladesh has also reacted positively and with more players being drawn in the loop, the popularity will only grow.

South Africa saw a moderate viewership in the first edition but after hosting the second edition, there was increase in the viewership.

In the West Indies, the IPL became immensely popular. It even threatened to overtake Test cricket completely among certain sections of fans. However, the event was less popular in Australia and in New Zealand it consistently won its free-to-air timeslot.


IPL is a perfect example of an ideal business model

The IPL has emerged as an ideal business model for the sporting fraternity across the world, according to an Australian researcher.

"IPL has been an inspiring business model across the sporting world. It has been a catalyst for growth of commercialisation of sports in India," Pamm Kellet, Associate Professor in Sports Management, Deakin University, Melbourne said on Thursday.

"IPL's business model is quite different from what other countries have done earlier. Cricket Australia has been trying to develop its own T20 league, the KFC Big Bash, on IPL's lines," added Kellet, who is in India to promote collaboration in Sports Education.

Kellet said India has a lot of untapped potential in sports management and insisted that in order to explore the latent talent, "sophisticated knowledge was required given that needs of different people are different."

"There is a need to strategise, learn from the IPL, and apply it to other sports," she added.

What makes it so lucrative?

The sheer big money of the IPL is unprecedented at this level of cricket. It's an entire cricket economy out there. The IPL is predicted to bring the BCCI income of approximately US$1 billion, over a period of five to ten years. All of these revenues are directed to a central pool, 40 per cent of which will go to the IPL itself, 54 per cent to the franchisees and 6 per cent as prize money. The money will be distributed in these proportions until 2017, after which the share of IPL will be 50 per cent, franchisees 45 per cent and prize money 5 per cent.


The format?

In 2011, two new teams - Sahara Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskera Kerala - had joined the tournament, taking the initial number of teams from eight to ten. However, Kochi failed to abide by the contract and was consequently expelled from the tournament. So this year, there will be nine teams.

The squad sizes for each team have been increased from 30 to 33, with eleven foreign players per squad, up one from the previous limit of 10. However, the number of foreign players that can be part of the final XI will remain at four. The teams will have an additional salary cap of $2 million.


Fixtures

Defending champions Chennai Super Kings will take on Mumbai Indians in the inaugural match of the fifth edition at Chennai's MA Chidambaram stadium on April 4.

The tournament is scheduled to feature nine franchisee teams and a total of 76 matches will be played across the 12 venues in the run to the finals on May 27.

The league stage of the 54-day-long event will comprise of 72 matches with each team playing the other eight in a home-and-away format.

The play offs would be hosted by Bangalore and Chennai, the two finalists from the previous edition.

While Bangalore will host Qualifier 1 -- the table toppers from the league stage versus the second team on that list (1 vs 2) -- and the Eliminator -- the contest between the third and fourth placed teams (3 vs 4) -- on May 22 and 23 respectively, Chennai will be the venue for Qualifier 2 to be played on May 25.

The city will also host the final on May 27.

The new stadium in Pune, subject to the final completion, will make its debut as an IPL venue, by staging all eight 'home' games of the Pune Warriors India. Dharamsala, Cuttack and Vizag will host two games each.

The strategic time out should in the following manner:
·          1 break of 2 1/2 minutes between over's 6-10 at the behest of the bowling team captain
·          1 break of 2 1/2 minutes between over's 11-16 at the behest of the batsmen at the crease.
·          The time-out should be mandatorily taken like the Power play that is used in ODIs
·          On request for the STO from the respective team, the Umpires will signal to indicate the STO

Icon player status
In the Indian Premier League, an Icon Player was a player who could only play for his home city in the competition. Unlike all the other players involved, the icon players did not go through bidding. The rules changed for the 2011 format when each of the franchises were given the option of either letting go of their icon players or retaining them for a price, apart from the other three players of their choice. So while the likes of MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar were retained, others like Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh were released back into the pool of players.

FRANCHISES

Following are some important facts on the nine franchises of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20.

MUMBAI (titled Mumbai Indians) Situated in western India and is the country's financial capital. Owned by Reliance Industries Ltd, India's most valuable company.
Owner: Mukesh Ambani (industrialist)
Cost: $111.9 million
Coach: Robin Singh (IND)
Captain: Sachin Tendulkar (IND)

BANGALORE (titled Royal Challengers) Situated in southern India and is the country's IT capital. Owned by United Breweries Ltd.

Owner: Vijay Mallya (liquor and airline baron)
Cost: $111.6 million
Coach: Ray Jennings (RSA)
Captain: Virat Kohli (India)

KOLKATA (titled Kolkata Knight Riders) Situated in eastern India. Owned by a consortium that includes Shah Rukh Khan-owned Red Chillies Entertainment.

Owners: Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla (Bollywood stars)
Cost: $75.09 million
Coach: Dav Whatmore (AUS)
Captain: Gautam Gambhir


DELHI (titled Delhi Daredevils) Situated in northern India and is the country's capital. Owned by infrastructure company GMR Holdings.

Owner: GMR Holdings (Indian business house)
Cost: $84 million
Coach: Greg Shipperd (AUS)
Captain: Virender Sehwag (IND)


MOHALI (titled Kings XI Punjab) Situated in northern India. Owned by a consortium that includes Bollywood actress Preity Zinta, businessmen Ness Wadia and Mohit Barman.

Owners: Ness Wadia (businessman), Preity Zinta (Bollywood star), Mohit Burman (businessman), Karan Paul (businessman)
Cost: $76 million
Coach: Tom Moody (Aus)
Captain: Adam Gilchrist (Aus)


HYDERABAD (titled Deccan Chargers) Situated in southern India. Owned by media group Deccan Chronicle.

Owners: Deccan Chronicle (newspaper group)
Cost: $107.01 million
Coach: Darren Lehmann (AUS)
Captain: Kumar Sangakkara (SL)


CHENNAI (Chennai Super Kings) Situated in southern India. Owned by India Cements.

Owner: N. Srinivasan (businessman and Indian cricket board secretary)
Cost: $91 million
Coach: Stephen Fleming (NZL)
Captain: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (IND)

JAIPUR (Rajasthan Royals) Situated in northern India. Primarily owned by UK-based company Emerging Media along with Bollywood starlet Shilpa Shetty.

Owners: Emerging Media group (Lachlan Murdoch, A.R Jha and Suresh Chellaram), Shilpa Shetty (Bollywood star), Raj Kundra (Businessman)
Cost: $67 million
Captain: Rahul Dravid (India)

PUNE (Pune Warriors)

Owners: Sahara Group
Cost: $370 million
Coach/captain: Sourav Ganguly (IND)

What's an Orange Cap?

Taking a cue from other famous events like the Tour de France, the DLF Indian Premier League had announced the introduction of the Orange Cap, which would be worn by the batsman with the most cumulative runs to his name on each day of the event.
The holder of the Orange Cap at the end of the Twenty20 extravaganza will be honoured with the Winner of Orange Cap 2008 on the day of grand finale.
The leader of the multi-stage gruelling cycle race Tour de France wears the yellow jacket at the start of each new stage to help identify the overall leader easily.

Purple Cap: This is awarded to the bowler with most cumulative wickets to his name. The holder of the Purple Cap receives recognition on the final day of the IPL. In the event of a tie at any given time, the holder will be determined by superior economy rate.

Who have got the title sponsorship rights?

Indian real estate developer DLF Universal secured exclusive rights to the Indian Premier League title sponsorship worth INR 200 crore (over US$50 million) for five years. The deal ends with this year's tournament.

Who are the franchise owners and what's the money involved?

·          Bangalore - Vijay Mallya/UB group - $111.6 million
·          Chennai - India Cements - $91 million
·          Delhi - GMR group - $84 million
·          Hyderabad - Deccan Chronicle - $107 million
·          Jaipur - Emerging Media (Manoj Badale, Lachlan Murdoch, Suresh Chellaram and investors) - $67 million. Last season, Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty and Dubai-based businessman Raj Kundra picked up 12 per cent stake worth over $11.6 million in the Rajasthan Royals franchise team.
·          Kolkata - Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment in partnership with Juhi Chawla and Jay Mehta - $75.09 million
·          Mohali - Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia (Bombay Dyeing), Karan Paul (Apeejay Surendera Group) and Dabur's Mohit Burman - $76 million
·          Mumbai - Mumbai Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Limited - $111.9 million.
·          Pune - by Sahara Group -  $370 million

Winners

2008 Winner - Rajasthan Royals
Runner Up - Chennai Super Kings

2009 Winner - Deccan Chargers
Runner Up - Royal Challengers Bangalore

2010 Winner - Chennai Super Kings
Runner Up- Mumbai Indians

2011 Winner - Chennai Super Kings
Runner Up - Royal Challengers Bangalore