Indian Premier League facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Indian Premier League

Countries	India
Administrator	Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)
Headquarters	Cricket Centre, Churchgate, Mumbai, Maharashtra
Format	Twenty20
First edition	2008
Latest edition	2023
Tournament format	Round Robin format with Group System and Playoffs
Number of teams	10
Current champion	Chennai Super Kings (5th title)
Most successful	Chennai Super Kings Mumbai Indians (5 titles each)
Most runs	Virat Kohli (7,897)
Most wickets	Yuzvendra Chahal (201)
TV	India Star Sports (TV) JioCinema (Internet) International List of broadcasters

The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as the TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's Twenty20 (T20) cricket league held annually in India. Founded by the BCCI in 2007, the league features ten city-based franchise teams. The IPL usually takes place during the summer, between March and May each year. It has an exclusive window in the ICC Future Tours Programme, resulting in fewer international cricket tours occurring during the IPL seasons.

The IPL is by far the most popular cricket league in the world; in 2014, it ranked sixth in average attendance among all sports leagues. In 2010, the IPL became the first sporting event to be broadcast live on YouTube. Inspired by the success of the IPL, other Indian sports leagues have been established. In 2022, the league's brand value was estimated at ₹90,038 crore (US$11 billion). According to the BCCI, the 2015 IPL season contributed ₹1,150 crore (US$140 million) to India's GDP. In December 2022, the IPL achieved a valuation of US$10.9 billion, becoming a decacorn and registering a 75% growth in dollar terms since 2020 when it was valued at $6.2 billion, according to a report by the consulting firm D and P Advisory. Its 2023 final became the most streamed live event on the internet, with 32 million viewers.

In 2023, the league sold its media rights for the next 4 Seasons for US$6.4 billion to Viacom18 and Star Sports, meaning each IPL match was valued at $13.4 million. As of 2023, there have been sixteen seasons of the tournament. The current champions are the Chennai Super Kings, who won the 2023 season after defeating the Gujarat Titans in the final.

History

Inspired by a rival

In 2007, Zee Entertainment Enterprises founded the Indian Cricket League (ICL). The ICL was not recognized by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) or the International Cricket Council (ICC). Moreover, the BCCI was unhappy about its committee members joining the ICL executive board. In response, the BCCI increased the prize money for its domestic tournaments and imposed lifetime bans on players who joined the rival league, which it considered a rebel league.

Foundation

On 13 September 2007, following India's victory at the 2007 T20 World Cup, the BCCI announced a franchise based Twenty20 cricket competition known as the Indian Premier League. The inaugural season was scheduled to start in April 2008, commencing with a "high-profile ceremony" in New Delhi. BCCI Vice-president Lalit Modi, who led the IPL initiative, provided details of the tournament, including its format, prize money, franchise revenue system, and squad composition rules. The league, to be managed by a seven-man governing council, would also serve as the qualifying mechanism for that year's Champions League Twenty20.

To determine team ownership, an auction for the franchises was held on 24 January 2008. The reserve prices for the eight franchises totalled $400 million, but the auction ultimately raised $723.59 million. The league officially commenced in April 2008, featuring Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Mumbai Indians (MI), Delhi Daredevils (DD), Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), Deccan Chargers (DC), Rajasthan Royals (RR), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).

Following the ban on players who chose to participate in the ICL, the rival league shut down in 2009.

A match during the 2008 IPL inaugural season in Chennai

Expansions and terminations

Crowd during a match of the 2023 IPL season in Kolkata

New franchises, Pune Warriors India and Kochi Tuskers Kerala, joined the league before the fourth season in 2011. The Sahara Adventure Sports Group purchased the Pune franchise for $370 million, while Rendezvous Sports World bought the Kochi franchise for $333.3 million. The Kochi franchise was terminated after just one season due to their failure to pay the BCCI the 10% bank guarantee element of the franchise fee.

In September 2012, the Deccan Chargers franchise agreement was terminated after the BCCI failed to find new owners. In October, an auction was held for a replacement franchise; Sun TV Network won the bid for what became the Hyderabad franchise; the team was named Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Pune Warriors India withdrew from the IPL in May 2013 due to financial differences with the BCCI. The BCCI officially terminated the franchise in October, and the league reverted to eight teams.

In June 2015, the two-time champions Chennai Super Kings and the inaugural season champions Rajasthan Royals were suspended for two seasons following their involvement in a spot-fixing and betting scandal. The two teams were replaced for two seasons by franchises based in Pune and Rajkot.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the venue for the 2020 season was moved and games were played in the United Arab Emirates. In August 2021, the BCCI announced two new franchises, based in two of six shortlisted cities, would join the league in the 2022 season. In closed bidding held in October, the RPSG Group and CVC Capital won the bids for the teams, paying ₹7,000 crore (US$1.2 billion) and ₹5,200 crore (US$880 million), respectively. The teams were subsequently named Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans.

Several IPL franchise owners have expanded their business by acquiring teams in other franchise leagues, such as the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), South Africa's SA20, the UAE's International League T20 (ILT) and the USA's Major League Cricket (MLC). These teams have been branded with similar names to their parent IPL franchises.

Organization

The IPL's headquarters are located in the Cricket Centre, next to the Wankhede Stadium in Churchgate, Mumbai. The Governing Council is responsible for the league's functions, including the organization of tournaments. As of April 2023^[update], its members included:

• Arun Singh Dhumal – Chairman
• Jay Shah – Secretary of the BCCI
• Ashish Shelar – Treasurer, BCCI
• Avishek Dalmiya
• Pragyan Ojha – Indian Cricketers' Association's representative
• Alka Rehani Bhardwaj – Comptroller and Auditor General of India nominee

Player acquisition, squad composition, and salaries

A team can acquire players through the annual player auction, trading with other teams during trading windows, and signing replacements for unavailable players. Players sign up for the auction and set their base price and are bought by the highest-bidding franchise. Unsold players at the auction can become replacement signings. Trades require player consent, and any contract differences are covered by the franchise. There are typically three trading windows: two before the auction and one before the tournament. No trading is allowed outside these windows or during the tournament, but replacements can be signed before or during the event.

Other notable rules, as of the 2020 season, include:

• The salary cap of the entire squad must not exceed ₹85 crore (US$14 million).
• Under-19 players cannot be picked unless they have previously played first-class or List A cricket.

Player contracts run for one year but can be extended by one or two years if the franchises take up the option. Since the 2014 season, player contracts have been denominated in the Indian rupee, before which the contracts were in the US dollar. Overseas players can be remunerated in the currency of the player's choice, at the exchange rate on either the contract due date or the actual payment date. Before the 2014 season, Indian domestic players were not included in the player auction pool. They could be signed up by franchises at a discrete amount while a fixed sum of ₹10 lakh (US$17,000) to ₹30 lakh (US$51,000) would be deducted per signing from the franchise's salary purse. This received significant opposition from franchise owners, who complained richer franchises were "luring players with under-the-table deals." The IPL later decided to include domestic players in the player auction.

The BCCI give 10% of foreign players' salaries to their country's national cricket board.

According to a 2015 survey by Sporting Intelligence and ESPN The Magazine, the average IPL salary when pro-rated is US$4.33 million per year, the second-highest of sports leagues in the world. Because players in the IPL are contracted only for the duration of the tournament – less than two months – the weekly IPL salaries are extrapolated pro data to obtain an average annual salary, unlike other sports leagues in which players are contracted by a single team for the entire year.

According to a report by The Telegraph, IPL players are paid 18% of the revenue, which is the lowest amount compared to other major sports leagues, in which players receive at least 50% of the revenue. The Federation of International Cricketers' Associations said that IPL players must be paid fairly.

Prize money

The 2022 season of the IPL offered total prize money of ₹46.5 crore (equivalent to ₹49 crore or US$8.4 million in 2023), with the winning team netting ₹20 crore (equivalent to ₹21 crore or US$3.6 million in 2023) and the second-placed team ₹13 crore (equivalent to ₹14 crore or US$2.3 million in 2023). League rules mandate that half of any prize money must be distributed amongst the franchise's players.

Unique rules and variations

The IPL has several rules which vary from the established Laws of cricket or those used in other Twenty20 leagues:

• IPL games incorporate television timeouts. Each team is given a two-and-a-half-minute "strategic time-out" during each innings. One must be taken by the bowling team between the seventh and ninth overs and the other by the batting team between the 14th and 16th overs. A penalty may be imposed if umpires find teams misusing this privilege.
• Since the 2018 season, the Decision Review System (DRS) has been used in all IPL matches, allowing each team two opportunities each innings to review an on-field umpire's decision. From the 2023 season, this was extended to allow the review of wides and no-balls.
• If the bowling team does not complete its overs in the allocated time, it may place only four fielders outside of the fielding restrictions circle for the remainder of the innings, or the match referee may impose financial sanctions on the bowling team after the match, with players fined a proportion of their match fee.
• Teams can use a substitute, termed an "impact player", from a list of five players named as possible substitutes. The substitution can be made before the start of the innings, when a wicket falls, when a batter retires or at the end of an over. Both teams can introduce a substitute once per match.
• Teams can declare their playing eleven to the match referee before or after the toss.
• A five-run penalty is imposed if a fielder or wicket-keeper makes an unfair movement while the bowler is bowling and the ball is designated as dead ball.
• Teams can include four overseas players in their playing eleven.
• Teams must include 25 players, with a maximum of eight overseas players.
• From the 2024 season, bowlers will be allowed to deliver two bouncers an over. This change in playing conditions was trialled during the 2023–24 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, India's domestic T20 tournament.

Teams

Current Teams

As of the 2024 season, the league has ten teams based in cities across India.

Defunct teams

Timeline of teams

Present teams Former teams Suspended

Tournament seasons and results

Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians have each won five titles, the most in the tournament. Kolkata Knight Riders have won two titles, while Rajasthan Royals, Deccan Chargers, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Titans have each won a single title.

The reigning champions are the Chennai Super Kings, who defeated the Gujarat Titans by five wickets in the 2023 IPL final to secure their fifth title.

Number of titles

^† Team now defunct

Finals

Teams' performances

Seasons

• Current teams are listed alphabetically. Defunct teams are listed by order of entry to the league, then alphabetically.

^† Team now defunct

•      C: champions
•      RU: runner-up
•      3rd: team won the 3rd place playoff. A third-place playoff only took place in 2010
•      4th: team lost the 3rd place playoff
•      SF or PO: team qualified for the semi-final or playoff stage of the competition

Position of teams in Points Table (2008–2024)

•      indicates qualified for playoffs

(C) = Eventual champion; (R) = Runner-up.

All Time Standings

This section shows records from the league stage only (i.e. excluding playoffs & finals) from 2008–2023. Stats are correct as of conclusion of IPL 2023.

Records and statistics

A summary of the most notable statistical records associated with the tournament is provided below:

• Source: records extracted from ESPNcricinfo

Awards

Orange Cap

The Orange Cap is awarded to the highest run-scorer at the end of each season. It is an ongoing competition with the current highest-run scorer wearing the cap whilst fielding. The eventual winner keeps the cap for the season. Brendon McCullum was the first player to wear the Orange Cap and Shaun Marsh the inaugural winner of the award. Australian batsman David Warner has won the award three times, more than any other player. Shubman Gill of Gujarat Titans, who scored 890 runs during the 2023 season, is the most recent winner of the award.

Purple Cap

The Purple Cap is awarded to the highest wicket-taker at the end of each season. It is an ongoing competition and the bowler who is the leading wicket-taker wears a purple cap whilst fielding. The eventual winner keeps the cap for the season. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Dwayne Bravo are the only players to have won the award twice. Mohammed Shami of Gujarat Titans who took 28 wickets during the 2023 season, is the most recent winner of the award.

Most Valuable Player

The Most Valuable Player award, formerly called the "Man of the Tournament" until the 2012 season, is awarded using a ratings system introduced in 2013. Shubman Gill won the award in 2023.

Fair Play Award

The Fair Play Award is given after each season to the team considered to have the best fair play record. After each match, the two on-field umpires and the third umpire score the performance of both teams, with the highest-scoring team at the end of the season receiving the award. The 2023 winners were Delhi Capitals.

Emerging Player Award

The Emerging Player Award was presented to the best under-19 player in 2008 and the best under-23 player in 2009 and 2010. In 2011 and 2012, the award was known as "Rising Star of the Year," and in 2013 the "Best Young Player of the Season." Since 2014, the award has been called the Emerging Player of the Year. Mustafizur Rahman is the only foreign player to win this award. The 2023 winner was Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Maximum Sixes Award

The Maximum Sixes Award is presented to the player who hits the most sixes at the end of the season.

Finances

Title sponsorship

From 2008 to 2012, the IPL title sponsor was DLF, India's largest real estate developer, which bid ₹200 crore (US$34 million) for the rights for five seasons. After the 2012 season, PepsiCo bought the title sponsorship rights for ₹397 crore (US$67 million) for the next five seasons but terminated the deal in October 2015, two years before the expiry of the contract, due to the two-season suspension of the Chennai and Rajasthan franchises from the league. The BCCI transferred the title sponsorship rights for the remaining two seasons of the contract to Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo for ₹200 crore (US$34 million).

In June 2017, Vivo retained the rights for the next five seasons from 2018 to 2022 with a winning bid of ₹2,199 crore (US$370 million). On 4 August 2020, Vivo canceled the title sponsorship rights due to the military stand-off between India and China at the Line of Actual Control in July 2020. The withdrawal was also a result of Vivo's market losses due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; Vivo intended to return as the title sponsor for the following three years. Dream11 became the title sponsors for the 2020 IPL for an amount of ₹222 crore (equivalent to ₹261 crore or US$44 million in 2023). Vivo returned as the title sponsor for the 2021 IPL season but withdrew again, and was replaced by the Tata Group for the next two seasons. InsideSport reported the BCCI would receive ₹498 crore (US$85 million) for the 2022 and 2023 seasons from title sponsors. Vivo had previously agreed to pay a higher amount for the last two seasons of its sponsorship contract due to the league's expansion from the 2022 season. According to InsideSport, due to the new deal's structure, Tata would pay ₹335 crore (US$57 million) per year while Vivo would pay the deficit of ₹163 crore (US$28 million) per season.

Saudi Aramco brought the rights to advertise on the Purple and Orange caps in 2022.

Payments to foreign national boards

The BCCI pays ten per cent of the auctioned value of players to their national cricket boards. In January 2018, IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla said the IPL would double the amount paid to cricket boards that made their players available for an entire season. In 2022, Australian Cricketers' Association expressed its unhappiness about this.

Brand value

The IPL tournament rapidly grew in value between 2016 and 2018. Financial experts valued the IPL at US$4.16 billion in 2016; that number grew to $5.3 billion in 2017 and $6.13 billion in 2018. A report from Duff & Phelps said one of the contributing factors in the rapid growth of the IPL's value was a new television deal with Star India Private Limited, which engaged more viewers because the IPL was transmitted to regional channels in eight languages; under the previous deal, the transmissions were limited to sports networks with English-language commentary.

According to an independent report conducted by Brand Finance, a London-based company, after the conclusion of the 2017 Indian Premier League, the IPL's business value grew by 37% to an all-time peak of $5.3 billion, exceeding the five-billion-dollar mark for the first time in a season. According to the company's director Savio D'Souza:

Now in its 11th season, the Indian Premier League is here to stay. The league has delivered financially for the players, franchisees, sponsors, and India as a whole, prompting a strong desire among stakeholders to value it appropriately. To ensure continued development, management, and team owners must explore innovative ways of engaging fans, clubs, and sponsors.

In December 2022, the IPL became a decacorn valued at US$10.9 billion, registering a 75% growth in dollar terms since 2020 when it was valued at $6.2 billion, according to a report by consulting firm D & P Advisory.

In 2022, the BCCI took insurance of ₹5,000 crore (US$850 million) for the IPL. This insurance policy involves all stakeholders, including broadcasters, ancillary services providers, and sponsors. The BCCI is covered in the case of any revenue losses due to weather, riots, and other unforeseen events.

Broadcasting

2023–2027: Star Sports and JioCinema

The next cycle of IPL media rights will last from 2023 to 2027 and will be put to auction. In this auction, the broadcasting rights were divided into four packages. Package A was for domestic television rights, and Package B was for domestic digital rights. Package C was for the digital rights of eighteen non-exclusive matches, and Package D was for international television and digital rights, further divided into four groups. On 13 June 2022, it was reported the packages for domestic television and streaming rights had fetched at least ₹397.75 billion (nearly US$5.1 billion) in total, doubling the value of the 2018–2022 contract.

The next day, it was announced that Star Sports had renewed its contract for television rights by winning package A, and that a Viacom18 consortium had exclusively acquired the streaming rights by winning both Package B and C. The two contracts for Package A and B are cumulatively valued at around US$6.2 billion; with the new contracts, the IPL overtook the Premier League in English football as the second highest-valued sports media property worldwide, behind only the NFL, whose new media contracts taking effect in the 2023 season cumulatively fetched US$111 billion.

In February 2023, Viacom18 announced it would stream the 2023 IPL for free on JioCinema with feeds in 12 languages, including English and regional languages, and in 4K resolution. The same month, The Walt Disney Company reported its loss of the IPL had contributed to a net loss of 2.4 million Disney+ subscribers worldwide, primarily in India.

Ahead of the 2023 IPL, Star launched HD feeds of Star Sports 1 in Tamil and Telugu and announced its free-to-air channel Star Utsav Movies would carry twelve matches. It was anticipated viewership of Star Sports' broadcasts may not be heavily impacted by the Jio deal due to its existing market reach (including as rights holder of India's home matches) and viewers who preferred linear television due to being less familiar with over-the-top services, or concerns over technical issues associated with such services. JioCinema reported the IPL had 1.4 billion views on the service over the opening weekend, which was higher than the entirety of the 2022 season on Disney+ Hotstar. The 2023 final set a record for the most concurrent viewers of a livestreamed event, peaking at over 32 million viewers (surpassing a record of 25.3 million set by Hotstar during the 2019 Cricket World Cup).

List of broadcasters

Territory	Channels and Online streaming	Years
India	Star Sports 1 HD Star Sports 1 Hindi HD Star Sports 1 Kannada Star Sports 1 Tamil HD Star Sports 1 Telugu HD Star Gold HD Star Bharat SD Star Utsav Movies SD Star Jalsa Movies SD Star Maa Movies SD Star Suvarna Plus SD Star Vijay Super SD	2024–2027
	Jio Cinema (Internet)	2024–2027
Afghanistan	ATN HD ATN News HD	2024
	Ariana Television (Internet) https://www.arianatelevision.com/live/	2024
Australia	Foxtel Fox Cricket Kayo Sports	2023–present
	Kayo Freebies (Internet)	2023–present
Bangladesh	T Sports HD	2024
	T Sports APP	2024
Indonesia	Vidio (Internet)	2023
New Zealand	Colors TV	2024–present
Pakistan	Tapmad APP https://www.tapmad.com/watch/watch-ipl-2024-live-free/110751	2024
Ireland	Sky Sports DAZN	2023–present
United Kingdom
South Africa	SuperSport	2023
Sri Lanka	Supreme TV	2023–present
	The Papare.com https://live.thepapare.com/event/indian-premier-league-2024
United States	Willow TV	2023
Middle East and North Africa	Times Internet	2023
Sub-Saharan Africa	SuperSport	2021–present

See also

In Spanish: Liga Premier de India para niños