What is Indian Premier League(IPL) ? What is it's Importance in India ?
IPL stands for Indian Premier League which is a domestic cricket league in India. It's the world's largest domestic cricket league which was founded by BCCI ( Board for control of Cricket in India) in 2007. It's been ranked as of the most watched sporting leagues in the world.
IPL History :-
IPL(Indian Premier League) was founded in 2007 by BCCI (Board for control of Cricket in India). It was started against the controversial ICL ( Indian Cricket League) . Neither the BCCI (Board for control of Cricket in India) nor ICC (International Cricket Council) recognized the ICL as it was a very controversial league at that time. Post 2007 world cup, Mr. Lalit Modi , The Vice President of BCCI announced the IPL and laid out it's planned structure. IPL was somewhat similar of EPL of England and NBA of USA.
All the franchises were laid out before the inaugural season of the IPL with it's structure keeping the base price of 400 Million USD. The huge auction was conducted which in which all the rights were finally sold out at whopping 700 million USD. This was the first ever auction of the IPL in it's inaugural season.
The inaugural season was won by Rajasthan Royals captained by Shane Warne. The other founding teams were Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals, Deccan Chargers, Royal Challengers Bangalore , Punjab XI kings, Chennai super kings and Kolkata Knight Riders. Apart from that, Pune warriors, Kochi Tuskers Kerala , Gujarat Lions, deccan Chargers were also teams which were later terminated due to breaches of terms and conditions of BCCI. Deccan Chargers was also there which was later replaced by Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Here are some of the major time stamps in the history of IPL Teams :-
1. 21 March, 2010 - Pune Warriors India and Kochi Tuskers Team Announced.
2. 11 November, 2011 - Kochi Tuskers Kerala Team was terminated as they breached terms and conditions of BCCI.
3. 14 September 2012 - Deccan Chargers Team was terminated as they breached terms and conditions of BCCI.
4. 26 October 2013 - Pune warriors India was terminated by BCCI from IPL.
5. 14 June 2015 - Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were suspended by BCCI for 2 Years for match-fixing.
6. 8 December, 2015 - Two new teams Rising Pune Supergiant's and Gujarat Lions were announced in replacement.
7. 25 October 2021 - Two new Teams were announced Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans.
IPL Tournament Format :-
The current IPL Tournament has 10 Teams which are divided into 2 group's comprising 5 teams in each one. All the teams are given equal chances to play with each other and secure 2 points after winning each match.
After a certain stage of achieving the required point, the best 4 teams in the table from the top, enter in to the qualifying race to play for the finals.
The top two teams in the table play the first qualifying match and the winner get's the ticket to directly enter into the finals.
The third and fourth ranked teams play the eliminator match where the loser team get's out of the tournament and the winning team play's the second qualifying match against the loser of the first qualifying Match.
Finally the winner of the second qualifying match enters in the IPL final and play's against the winner of the first qualifying match and then the team which wins the final match is crowned as the IPL(Indian Premier League) Champions.
IPL Teams :-
There are currently 10 IPL teams which are based on the Indian cities and states.
1. Mumbai Indians - From Mumbai city, Maharashtra State, India.
2. Rajasthan Royals - From Jaipur city, Rajasthan State, India.
3. Lucknow Super Giants - From Lucknow city, Uttar Pradesh State, India.
4. Kolkata Knight Riders - From Kolkata City, West Bengal State, India.
5. Sunrisers Hyderabad - From Hyderabad City, Telangana State, India.
6. Royal Challengers Bangalore - From Bangalore City, Karnataka State, India
7. Delhi Capitals - From New Delhi, The National Capital, India.
8. Punjab Kings - From Mohali city, Punjab State, India.
9. Chennai Super Kings - From Chennai City , Tamilnadu State , India.
10. Gujarat Titans - From Ahmedabad city, Gujarat State, India.
The team's which were terminated in the history were :-
1. Deccan Chargers
2. Kochi Tuskers Kerala
3. Pune Warriors India
4. Rising Pune Supergiant's
5. Gujarat Lions
Now let's see how many teams have won the Titles of IPL :-
| Teams | Years Winner | Years Runner Up | Total IPL title | Total season played | Current Captain |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mumbai Indians | 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020 | 2010 | 5 ( Most ) | 15 | Rohit Sharma |
| Chennai Super Kings | 2010, 2011, 2018,2021 | 2008,2012,2013,2015,2019 | 4 | 13 | Mahendra Singh Dhoni |
| Royal Challengers Bangalore | Not Won Any | 2009, 2011, 2016 | 0 | 15 | Virat Kohli |
| Sunrisers Hyderabad | 2016 | 2018 | 1 | 10 | Kanw Williamson |
| Rajasthan Royals | 2008 | 2022 | 1 | 13 | Sanju Samson |
| Gujarat Titans | 2022 | Nil | 1 | 1 | Hardik Pandya |
| Punjab Kings | Not Won Any | 2014 | 0 | 15 | Mayank Agarwal |
| Delhi Capitals | Not Won Any | 2020 | 0 | 15 | Rishab Pant |
| Lucknow Super Giants | Not won Any | Nil | 0 | 1 | K. L Rahul |
| Deccan Chargers | 2009 | Nil | 1 | 5 | Team Terminated |
| Kolkata Knight Riders | 2012, 2014 | 2021 | 2 | 15 | Shreyas Iyer |
The Various Titles Awarded to the player in the IPL Season :-
The Orange Cap :- It's awarded to the player who scores the highest individual runs in the season.
The Purple Cup :- It's awarded to the player who gets the highest individual wickets in the season.
Most Valuable Player :- It's awarded to the person who consistently performs very well for his team in the entire season.
Most Sixes Award :- It's awarded to the person who scores maximum sixes in the Entire season.
How BCCI earns money from IPL :-
Broadcasting Rights - BCCI earns heavily from the broadcasting Rights which is sold in billions of Dollars for a single season. It includes both the Satellite Rights and Digital Rights. The viewership of IPL is highest in India followed by other cricket playing countries. Apart from that, IPL is streamed in almost all the countries in the world which brings huge money for the BCCI.
Title Sponsorship - Big brands like DLF, TATA pays a huge amount to BCCI for the title Sponsorship of IPL per season .
The Brand Value of Teams - The Billions of Viewership of IPL has made the brand value of every team beyond almost 1 Billion USD which indirectly brings all the sponsorships and advertisements.
Various Billionaires, Bollywood stars and Brands own various IPL teams which in turn generates huge revenue as well as popularity for the IPL. For eg. Mumbai Indians is owned by Indian Billionaire and Asia's Richest Person Mr. Mukesh Ambani which has won 5 IPL titles (most by any team) where as Kolkata Knight Rider's is owned by The King of Bollywood and one of the Highest paid actor's in the world Mr. Shah Rukh khan which has won 2 IPL titles.
BCCI also generates huge revenues from the tickets sold in stadiums, and various other advertisement means which makes IPL the biggest domestic cricket league in the world.
My Conclusion :-
IPL has certainly revolutionized the cricket. The cricketers who managed to earn average income annually by playing hard throughout the various tournaments now earn 10 times more than that in a three month's league. IPL has certainly attracted the cricketer's all over the world towards it as it has the most lucrative offer's, highest viewership, tough competition which gives player's a big platform to show their talent. IPL has also influenced various other countries to start their own domestic cricket league. All the cricketers in the world are welcomed to play in IPL except the Pakistani Players. Pakistani Players are banned from playing in IPL for indefinite time since 2008 after the cowardly attack by Pakistani radical Islamist terrorists in Mumbai on 26th November, 2008 killing 100s of innocent Indian civilians which is also popularly known as 26/11 attacks.