The IPL (Indian Premier League) is the most watched cricket competition in the world, attracting an average TV audience in the hundreds of millions. It is a T20 cricket tournament that follows the franchise model of team ownership, with all the teams based in a major city in India.
First played in 2008, it continues to grow in popularity and commercial appeal each year.
Surprisingly, it has not always been staged in India. In 2009 it was relocated to South Africa because it clashed with the Indian general elections that year, whilst in 2020 and 2021 (partially) the Covid pandemic saw the action shift to the Middle East.
T20 Cricket
IPL uses the newest format of the game, T20, which has quickly proved to be the most popular, especially with younger audiences. Unlike the traditional form of cricket, where games can last for several days, or even one day cricket, which lasts for the best part of a day, a T20 match can be played in its entirety in around three hours or less.
This is ideal for people who want to watch a game after work, or do not have enough time for longer matches because they have to juggle busy working and family lives.
IPL Franchise Model
The IPL follows the franchise model which is familiar to those who follow American sports. In this model, private corporations are invited to purchase cricket franchises, which are awarded after competitive bidding processes. This helps ensure not only that the league is on a sound financial footing, but helps attract sponsorship because of the commercial relationships that many of these corporations already have in place.
In reality, most franchises are owned by a consortium of owners, and include several prominent Bollywood actors, like Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta.
Founding Teams
There were eight founder members of the IPL, seven of which still exist today, albeit with some having changed their names along the way – the Mumbai Indians, the Chennai Super Kings, the Delhi Capitals, the Royal Challengers Bangalore, the Punjab Kings, the Kolkata Knight Riders, and the Rajasthan Royals.
The Deccan Chargers were a founder member, but they went out of business in 2012 due to financial problems. They were replaced by the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The Kochi Tuskers had an even briefer existence, playing just one season in the league in 2011 before they too were disbanded. And the Pune Warriors India too were dissolved due to money problems.
Meanwhile, both the Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiant enjoyed two seasons in the IPL as temporary replacements for the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, who were both banned for a temporary period because of the involvement of their owners in illegal betting activity.
Permanent Expansion
For the 2022 season, the league was permanently expanded to ten teams with the addition of two new franchises, the Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants. Longer term, the IPL hopes to add even more teams, because there is no shortage of willing applicants.
The Regular Season: Format of Competition
Traditionally each side played the others home and away on a round-robin basis. However, In 2022 there was a change to the format of the season.
The 10 teams are now divided into two groups, Group A and Group B, at the beginning of the season based on their historical winning record. The best team since the league’s inception is labeled Team 1 in Group A. The second best team becomes Team 1 in Group B. Then the third best team becomes Team 2 in Group A, and back and forth for all 10 teams.
Each team plays 14 matches.
A team plays the other teams in its group twice, which makes for 8 matches.
They play the remaining 6 games against the teams in the other group. They play two matches against the same ranked team in the other group, and play the other teams in the other group once.
For each match, two points are awarded for a win, and one point in the case of a no-result. A no-result happens if the match has to be abandoned due to bad weather or other factors.
(There are no draws in the IPL – if the scores are level at the end of the match, then a Super Over system is used to decide the winner, similar to overtime.)
Once the regular season has been completed, the top four teams on points advance to the knock-out stages of the competition. If teams are level on points, then the Net Run Rate – equivalent to goal difference in soccer – is used to rank them.
The Playoffs: Knock-Out Stages
The top two teams in terms of points will then play each other in a Qualifier game, the winner of which progresses straight to the final. The loser gets another bite of the cherry in that they play the winner of the game between the third and fourth-placed teams (known as the Eliminator) to decide the other finalist.
When Does the IPL Take Place?
The IPL is usually held between early April and early June, with its timing partially dictated by climactic conditions in India. From 2024, though, the tournament will be expanding to at least 75 days long.
The Players
Players can be acquired by franchises in one of three ways:
- Through the annual player auction
- Trading players with other franchises during the designated “transfer” window
- Signing replacements for players who become unavailable
Players sign up for the annual auction, where they are assigned a base price, and the various franchises bid for them. Unsold players are eligible to be signed as replacements.
Teams are subject to salary caps preventing one franchise from just buying all the best players.
Rosters
A roster must contain anywhere between 18 and 25 players, of which a maximum of eight can be from overseas. And they can only field four overseas players at a time in any match. Under-19 players cannot be chosen unless they have played first-class – or equivalent – cricket before.
Salaries
Although the salaries vary, a survey in 2018 found that the top IPL stars earn more per game than any other sporting league in the world. They earn on average, US $315,000 per game, which compares to the US $157,000 average amount earned per game in the NFL.
Top players, particularly those from India itself, can expect to earn many more times than that in sponsorship and product endorsements.
Stars That Have Appeared in the IPL
All the top Indian stars of the past decade or more have appeared in the IPL – including MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Rohit Sharma. Indeed, it has proved to be a valuable launch pad to international cricket, with the likes of Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, and Hardik Pandya all coming to prominence in the league.
Unlike their counterparts from other countries, Indian cricketers are not allowed to play in overseas leagues, in order to maintain the league’s uniqueness.
As for overseas players, all the elite players from other countries want to play in the IPL, both for its cachet and for the chance to earn life-changing amounts of money.
Among those that have appeared with particular distinction are Chris Gayle of the West Indies, David Warner and Steve Smith of Australia, AB de Villiers and Kagiso Rabada of South Africa, and Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler of England.
Sadly the list does not include any Pakistan players. Continuing political tensions between the two Asian neighbors means that Pakistanis are currently banned from the competition.
By Shantanu