m The BCCI launched the Indian Premier League (IPL) on the lines of

football¶s English Premier League and the National Basketball League

(NBA) of the US.

m The IPL is a professional Twenty20 cricket league created and

promoted by the BCCI and backed by the ICC. The Twenty20 league is
set to debut in April 2008, with eight teams comprising a minimum of 16
players each. The league will last for 44 days and will involve 59
matches.

m The IPL works on a franchise-system based on the American style of

hiring players and transfers. These franchises were put for auction,
where the highest bidder won the rights to own the team, representing
each city.

m The auction for the same took place on January 24, 2008 and the total
base price for the auction was $400 million. The auction went on to
fetch $723.59 million.
m The Mumbai franchise owned by Mukesh Ambani¶s Reliance Industries Limited
(RIL) was the most expensive franchise ± fetching $111.9 million closely
followed by Vijay Mallya¶s United Breweries which paid $111.6 million for the
Bangalore franchise.

m Media house Deccan Chronicle won the Hyderabad chapter of the IPL for $107
million, while India Cements¶ Chennai franchise cost $91 million.

m Bollywood also made its presence felt with two of its leading stars bagging the
ownership of their respective teams ± Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla¶s Red
Chillies Entertainment buying out Kolkata for $75.09, while Preity Zinta and her
beau Ness Wadia bought the Mohali team for $76 million.

m GMR , the infrastructure development group which who are involved in a project
for revamping the Delhi airport, bagged the ownership of the Delhi team for $84
million and the Emerging Media , consisting of its CEO Fraser Castellino, Manoj
Badale and Lachlan Murdoch and other investors won the rights for the Jaipur
franczhise for $67 million.
m 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, NEHRU, 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.
m 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.
m 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, Deccan Chargers did not play at
their preferred home location of Hyderabad, India due to
the ongoing political crisis in the Telangana 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.
m On 21 March 2010, it was announced at Chennai that 2 new teams from Pune and Kochi
will be added to the IPL for the coming season. 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 B
m CCI.On 5 December 2010, it was confirmed that Kochi will take part in the 4th season of
IPL.
m In October 2010, the Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab had their franchises
terminated for breaching ownership rules. The new Kochi franchise was also issued a
warning to resolve all their ownership disputes.
m The addition of teams representing Pune and Kochi was to have increased the number of
franchises from 8 to 10. The BCCI originally considered extending the tournament format
used in previous season to ten teams, which would increase the number of matches from
60 to 94. Instead, the round-robin stage of the tournament was to have been replaced by a
group stage with two groups of five, limiting the number of matches to 74. However, with
the expulsion of the Rajasthan royals and Kings XI Punjab teams, the format of the fourth
season of the IPL remains in flux.
m On December it was announced that King XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals would take part
in the 2011 edition of the IPL per court order.
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 Vijay Mallya¶s Rahul Dravid VENKATESH Royal $111.6 million

 UB Group PRASAD Challenge
 and other
UB brand

 Relia n c e Sachin Shaun Idea $111.9 million

 Industries Tendulkar Pollock Cellular,

Lt d (South Pepsi
Africa )

 ! Sharukh Sourav John HDIL, $75.09 million

! Khan,Juhi Ganguly . Buchanan Nokia, Tag
Chawala ,Jai (Australia Heauer,
Mehta Belmonte,
The