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.
Popularity
It has shifted the viewership pattern of cricket as share of women, kids and younger audience increased over other formats. In India, top five states for IPL viewership were Gujarat, West Bengal, MP, UP and Delhi and the most popular teams were Delhi Daredevils, Royal Challengers, Chennai Super Kings and Deccan Chargers.
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.
A similar positive reaction was seen in Sri Lanka, with interest in the Mumbai Indians being large due to the presence of Sanath Jayasuriya. 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 680% increase in viewership.
In the West Indies, the IPL became so popular that it 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.
It's popularity was capitalised by the sponsors. According to an independent study conducted by Repucom research, there was 310% increase in Sponsor value.
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.
Who are the cricketers involved?
The event has a new set of players in the fourth season with some of England's top stars joining the bandwagon.
The fourth edition has seen a complete over-hauling of players. So while Adam Gilchrist has exchanged the role of captain with Kumar Sangakkara for Kings XI Punjab from Deccan Chargers, Gautam Gambhir has become the skipper of Knight Riders which is a promotion though he will not play for Delhi Daredevils anymore. World Cup sensation Yuvraj Singh will lead the new franchise, Pune Warriors, while Mahela Jayawardene will lead Kochi Tuskers Kerela. Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni though continue to be at the helm of Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings while Virender Sehwag will be Delhi Daredevil's captain. Shane Warne too retains his place as the captain of the Rajasthan Royals.
The plaguing controversy
Year 2010 was a controversial year for the IPL and it began soon after the tournament itself was over. It started when tenders for two new teams were put. Kochi and Pune eventually won but the former ran into trouble when its owners and their stake-holding patterns came under serious doubt. From Shashi Tharoor to the chairman in Lalit Modi and other teams came under Income Tax radar. Tharoor eventually resigned from his post of union minister and Modi was removed from IPL dealings with legal tussle between him and BCCI still continuing.
The format?
Ten teams with 16 players in each squad. Teams have been divided into two groups and there will be 74 matches instead of 60. This is still 20 matches less than what was earlier anticipated, with the entry of two new franchises.
The now 10 franchises have been split into two groups of five and each team will play 14 matches like in the previous seasons. Each team will play the others in their group in home and away clashes before meeting teams from the other group.
Fixtures
In the first two editions, teams played each other twice in a round robin system, with equal number of home and away matches. The top four ranking sides progressed to the semi-finals. There were 59 matches in total However from 2010, there will 60 matches in total. An extra match will be played for the third place.
The fourth edition of the tournament kicks off in Chennai on 8th April 2011 with the opening match between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders.
Apart from the eight main venues - Mohali, New Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata, Navi Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore - Kochi, Pune and Indore have been added this year. Dharamsala will also host a few matches.
2 matches in Pune
5 matches in Kochi
2 matches in Indore
Strategic Time out
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.
Skippers
Sachin Tendulkar for Mumbai Indians
Virat Kohli for Bangalore Royal Challengers
Gautam Gambhir for Kolkata Knight Riders
Adam Gilchrist for Kings XI Punjab
Virender Sehwag for Delhi DareDevils
Kevin Pietersen for Deccan Chargers
Shane Warne for Rajasthan Royals
MS Dhoni for Chennai Super Kings
Yuvraj Singh for Pune Warriors
Mahela Jayawardene for Kochi
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.
Rules
The procedure followed for the new auctions:
The open auction had each player being individually put up for bidding by the franchises. The highest bid that was accepted by the auctioneer became the buyer at that price. There were around 78 players in the Auction - a combination of Indian national team and foreign cricketers. Each player had an annual "base player fee". The base player fee was the fee at which the bidding for that player began. This base player fee assumed that the player is available for the entire season of the DLF Indian Premier League season, including if applicable the Champions Tournament. This fee was subject to adjustments on a pro-rata basis, depending on the players availability for the DLF IPL season in the first year.
Each Franchise had a total "purse" of up to $5m that it could spend on the Auction. Franchises were not allowed to make a bid for a player that would take them beyond this total purse.
Players in the Auction were arranged into "sets" of approximately 12 according to their base player fee, their cricketing specialism and their expected availability for the season.
Some of the team composition rules are:
No more than 8 foreign players in the squad and at most 4 in the playing XI. From 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.
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.
What are the franchises?
The magnitude of the Indian Premier League was confirmed when the winning bidders for the eight franchises were announced on January 24, 2008. While the total base price for auction was US$400 million, the auction fetched US$723.59 million. The official list of franchise owners announced and the winning bids were as follows.
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.
Winners
2008 Winner - Rajasthan Royals
Runner Up - Chennai Super Kings
Even before the tournament began in 2008, everybody tipped some or the other team as the champion side. Little did many think the underdogs will walk away with the title. Rajasthan Royals did not boast of big stars with the exceptions of Shane Warne and Graeme Smith. Warne shepherded his young team in a manner that each one of them contributed in their success. In the final they took on MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings only to emerge as the new kings of IPL.
2009 Winner - Deccan Chargers
Runner Up - Royal Challengers Bangalore
The second season of the T20 tournament was even more dramatic. The two bottom-placed teams of 2008 - Royal Challengers and Deccan Chargers - went on to outperform everyone to set up a title clash. Adam Gilchrist-led Chargers prevailed over Anil Kumble's boys to lift the trophy.
2010 Winner - Chennai Super Kings
Runner Up- Mumbai Indians
A string of defeats and then a couple of victories was CSK's report card from the league stages of the tournament last year. Fortunately for them, their wins were big and they qualified for the semi final on the basis of net run-rate. They defeated Deccan Chargers here and vanquished Mumbai Indians to list the cup.
FRANCHISES
Following are some important facts on the ten 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: $111.9 million
Coach: Robin Singh (IND)
Captain: Sachin Tendulkar (IND)
Foreign players: Aedin Blizzard (Aus), James Franklin (NZ), Moises Henriques (Aus), Lasith Malinga (SL), Davy Jcobs (RSA), Clin McKay (Aus), Kieron Pollard (WI), Andrew Symonds (Aus),
India stars: Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Abu Nechim, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sarul Kanwar, Munaf Patel, Ali Murtaza, Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma, Rajagopa Sathish, Tirumallasetti Suman, Pawan Suyal, Aditya Tare, Santosh Yadav
Most expensive picks: Rohit Sharma ($ 2 million)
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: $111.6 million
Coach: Ray Jennings (RSA)
Captain: Virat Kohli (India)
Foreign players: AB de Villiers (RSA), Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL), Nuwan Pradeep (SL), Dirk Nannes (Aus), Luke Pomerbach (RSA), Rillee Rossouw (RSA), Johan van der Wath (RSA), Jonathan Vandiar (RSA), Daniel Vettori (NZ), Charl Langeveldt (RSA)
India stars: Mohammad Kaif, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Abhimanyu Mithun, Cheteshwar Pujara, Saurabh Tiwary,
Most expensive pick: Saurabh Tiwary ($ 1.6 million)
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
Foreign players: Brad Hadin (Aus), Jacques Kallis (RSA), Brett Lee (Aus), Eoin Morgan (Eng), James Pattinson (Aus), Shakib al Hasan (Bang), Ryan ten Doeschate (NED).
India stars: Gautam Gambhir, Sarabjit Ladda, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Rajat Bhatia, Manvinder Bisla, Shreevats Goswami, Iqbal Abdulla, Yusuf Pathan, Pradeep Sangwan, Shami Ahmed, Laxmi Shukla, Manoj Tiwary, Jaidev Unadkat.
Most expensive pick: Gautam Gambhir ($2.4 million)
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: $84 million
Coach: Greg Shipperd (AUS)
Captain: Gautam Gambhir (IND)
Foreign players: David Warner (Aus), Matthew Wade (Aus), Roelof van dar Merwe (RSA), Morne Morkel (RSA), Andrew McDonald (Aus), James Hopes (Aus), Colin Ingram (RSA), Aaron Finch (Aus), Robert Frylinck (RSA), Travis Birt (Aus),
India stars: Virender Sehwag, Varun Aaron, Ajit Agarkar, Robin Bisht, Unmukt Chand, Ajit Chandila, Ashok Dinda, Yogesh Nagar, Naman Ojha, Irfan Pathan, Rajesh Pawar, Avishkar Salvi, Sridharan Sriram, Venugopal Rao, Vikas Mishra, Tejashwi Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Vivek Yadav, Rajesh Pawar.
Most expensive pick: Irfan Pathan ($ 1.9 million)
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)
Foreign players: Adam Gilchrist (AUS), Stuart Broad (Eng), Ryan Harris (Aus), David Hussey (Aus), Shaun Marsh (Aus), Dimitri Mascarenhas (Eng), Nathan Rimmington (Aus).
India stars: Dinesh Kartik, Love Ablish, Piyush Chawla, Siddharth Chitnis, Praveen Kumar, Vikramjeet Malik, Abhishek Nayar, Nitin Saini, Shalabh Srivastava, Sunny Singh .
Most expensive pick: David Hussey ($1.4 million)
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)
Foreign players: Daniel Christian (Aus), Jean Paul Duminy, (RSA), Michael Lumb, Chris Lynn (Aus), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Kumar Sangakkara (SL), Dale Steyn (RSA), Rusty Theron (RSA), Cameron White (Aus).
India stars: Ashish Reddy, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Akash Bhandari, Bharat Chipli, Kedar Devdhar, Shikhar Dhawan, Manpreet Gony, Harmeet Singh, Ishank Jaggi, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma,
Most expensive pick: Dale Steyn ($1.1million)
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)
Foreign players: George Bailey (Aus), Doug Bollinger (Aus), Dwayne Bravo (WI), Faf du Plessis (RSA), Ben Hilfenhaus (Aus), Michael Hussey (Aus), Suraj Randiv (SL), Nuwan Kulasekara (SL), Albie Morkel (Aus)
India stars: Shrikkanth Anirudha, Ravichandran Ashwin, MS Dhoni, Subramanium Badrinath, Shadab Jakati, Joginder Sharma, Yo Mahesh, Suresh Raina, Wridhiman Saha, Sudeep Tyagi, Murali Vijay.
Most expensive picks: MS Dhoni ($1.84 million)
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
Coach/captain: Shane Warne (AUS)
Foreign players: Johan Botha (RSA), Paul Collingwood (Eng), Shaun Tait (Aus), Ross Taylor (NZ), Shane Warne (Aus), Shane Watson (Aus), .
India stars: Aakash Chopra, Deepak Chahar, Aditya Dole, Rahul Dravid, Ashok Maneria, Pankaj Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, Abhishek Raut, Siddharth Trivedi, Dishant Harendra Yagnik.Â
Most expensive picks: Ross Taylor ($1 million)
KOCHI (KOCHI TUSKERS KERALA)
Owners: Anchor Earth (highest stake)
Cost: $331 million
Coach/captain: Mahela Jayawardene (SL)
Foreign players: Mahela Jayawardene (SL), John Hastings (Aus), Brad Hodge (Aus), Michael Klinger (Aus), Brendon McCullum (NZ), Muttiah Muralitharan (SL), Steve O'Keefe (Aus), Thisara Perera (SL), Owais Shah (Eng), Steven Smith (Aus),
Indian stars: VVS Laxman, S Sreesanth, Balachandra Akhil, Gnaneswara Rao, Deepak Chougule, Raiphi Gomez, Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Chandan Madan, Sushant Marathe, Prasanth Padmanabhan, Parthiv Patel, Romesh Pawar, RP Singh, Tanmay Srivastava, Vinay Kumar, Yashpal Singh
PUNE (PUNE WARRIORS)
Owners: Sahara Group
Cost:
Coach/captain: Yuvraj Singh (IND)
Foreign players: Alfonso Thomas, Graeme Smith (RSA), Jerome Taylor (WI), Jesse Ryder (NZ), Wayne Parnell (RSA), Tim Payne (Aus), Mitchell Marsh (Aus), Angelo Mathews (SL), Nathan McCullum, Callum Ferguson (Aus)
India stars: Yuvraj Singh, Imtiyaz Ahmad, Eklavya Dwivedi, Ganesh Gaikwad, Harpreet Singh, Dhiraj Jadhav, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Murali Kartik, Harshad Khadiwale, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mithun Manhas, Mohnish Mishra, Shrikant Mundhe, Ashish Nehra, Manish Pandey, Sachin Rana, Rahul Sharma, Robin Uthappa, Shrikant Wagh, Kamran Khan
WHAT'S NEW IN IPL 4
Since its inception in 2008, the Indian Premier League, more popularly IPL, has come a long way. It won't be very off the mark to suggest that IPL has played a decisive role in turning the dynamics of cricket on its head!
It was not easy to fiddle around with the religion of billions of Indians, leave alone the rest in other parts of the world. But once the 'IPL dice'. His experimentation put 'Tests' to test and ODIs were left searching for cover. For the first time it seemed that cricket had actually made the world smaller and a better place to live in.
If 2008 saw a packed Eden Garden viciously backing KKR's Shoaib Akhtar against Virender Sehwag, 2009 saw South African cricket fans embrace Mumbai and Hyderabad as if it seemed like Durban or Jo'burg to them. 2010 re-emphasised that cricket is a dynamic game capable of changing rapidly.
2011 however, will be a year that has changed as much off the field as on it. No Lalit Modi as the chairman of the immensely popular tournament, two new teams that have had their fair share of controversies ranging from bidding to ownership patters, and an overhaul of the players with Brian Lara and Sourav Ganguly being shown the exit- this season has seen it all even before it has formally begun.
However, all is not against it. New stadiums, new teams, new skippers and new format with 72 matches, IPL 4 promises more entertainment than the previous three editions put together.