The Indian Premier League (often abbreviated as IPL), is a Twenty20 cricket competition created by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and chaired by the Chairman & Commissioner IPL, BCCI Vice President Lalit Modi. The first season of the Indian Premier League commenced on 18 April 2008, and ended on 30 June 2008 with the victory of the Rajasthan Royals against Chennai Super Kings in the final at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai. As the second season of the IPL coincided with multi- phase 2009 Indian general elections, the Indian Central Government refused to release the Indian paramilitary forces to provide security, saying the forces would be stretched too thinly if they were to safeguard both the IPL and the elections. As a result, the BCCI decided to host the second season of the league outside India.[3] On 24 March 2009, the BCCI officially announced that the second season of the IPL will be held in South Africa.Though India did not host the second season, the format of the tournament remained unchanged from the 2008 season format. The third season of IPL is scheduled to be held in India from 12 March 2010 over a period of 45 days[4] Four new venues, Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam, Ahmedabad and Dharamsala, have been added[5][6]. Other changes include removal of icon players [7] and granting permission to players who were involved in the Indian Cricket League to play in the tournament Existing Original Eight The winning bidders for the eight franchises were announced on 24 January 2008.[12] While the total base price for auction was US $400 million, the auction fetched US $723.59 million.[13] The official list of franchise owners announced and the winning bids were as follows. Price Price Franchise Owner(s) (USD) (Rupees) $ 111.9 Rs. 503.55 Mukesh Ambani(Reliance Industries) Mumbai Indians m Cr Royal Vijay Mallya (UB Group) $ Rs. 502.20 Challengers 111.6 m Cr Bangalore Deccan Chargers Deccan Chronicle(Venkat Ram Reddy) $ 107.0 Rs. 481.50 m Cr Chennai Super India Cements (N.Srinivasan) $ 91.90 Rs. 413.55 Kings m Cr Delhi Daredevils GMR Holdings (Grandhi Mallikarjuna $ 84.0 m Rs. 378.00 Rao) Cr Kings XI Punjab Ness Wadia (Bombay Dyeing), Priety $ 76.0 m Rs. 342.00 Zinta, Mohit Burman (Dabur) and Karan Cr Paul (Apeejay Surendera Group) Kolkata Knight Red Chillies Entertainment (Shahrukh $ 75.1 m Rs. 337.95 Riders Khan, Gauri Khan, Juhi Chawla and J Cr Mehta) Rajasthan Royals Emerging Media (Lachlan Murdoch, A.R $ 67.0 m Rs. 301.50 Jha and Suresh Chellaram), Shilpa Shetty, Cr Raj Kundra [edit] Player signings Main articles: Royal Challengers Bangalore, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils, Deccan Chargers, Kolkata Knight Riders, Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians, and Rajasthan Royals The first players' auctions were held on 20 February 2008. The IPL placed icon status on a select few marquee Indian players. These players were Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, and Virender Sehwag. VVS Laxman initially named an icon player, later voluntarily opted out of his icon status to give his team (Deccan Chargers) more money to bid for players.[14] For the second season, auctions were also held, but free signings taking place in the off-season by franchises led to calls for a draft- like system where the lowest ranked teams would be given a first opportunity to sign players. [edit] Television rights and sponsorships The IPL is predicted to bring the BCCI income of approximately US$1.6 billion, over a period of five to ten years. All of these revenues are directed to a central pool, 40% of which will go to IPL itself, 54% to franchisees and 6% as prize money. The money will be distributed in these proportions until 2017, after which the share of IPL will be 50%, franchisees 45% and prize money 5%. The IPL signed up Kingfisher Airlines as the official umpire partner for the series in a Rs. 106 crore (1.06 billion) deal. This deal sees the Kingfisher Airlines brand on all umpires' uniforms and also on the giant screens during third umpire decisions.[15] [edit] Television rights On 15 January 2008 it was announced that a consortium consisting of India's Sony Entertainment Television network and Singapore-based World Sport Group secured the global broadcasting rights of the Indian Premier League.[16] The record deal has a duration of ten years at a cost of US $1.026 billion. As part of the deal, the consortium will pay the BCCI US $918 million for the television broadcast rights and US $108 million for the promotion of the tournament.[17] This deal was challenged in the Bombay High Court by IPL, and got the ruling on its side. After losing the battle in court, Sony Entertainment Television signed a new contract with BCCI with Sony Entertainment Television paying a staggering Rs. 8700 crores (87 billion) for 10 years. One of the reasons for payment of this huge amount is seen as the money required to subsidize IPL's move to South Africa which will be substantially more than the previous IPL. IPL had agreed to subsidize the difference in operating cost between India and South Africa as it decided to move to the African nation after the security concerns raised because of its coincidence with India's general elections. 20% of these proceeds would go to IPL, 8% as prize money and 72% would be distributed to the franchisees. The money would be distributed in these proportions until 2012, after which the IPL would go public and list its shares.[18] Sony-WSG then re-sold parts of the broadcasting rights geographically to other companies. Below is a summary of the broadcasting rights around the world. On 4 March 2010 ITV announced it had secured the United Kingdom television rights for the 2010 Indian Premier League. ITV will televise 59 of the 60 IPL matches on its ITV4 free to air channel.[19] Winning Bidder Regional Broadcast Rights Terms of Deal 10 years at Rs Sony/World Global Rights, India 8700 crores Sport Group (revised)[16] Free-to-air HD and SD television in Australia. 5 years at AUD ONE HD Owned by Network TEN. 10-15 Million.[20] Sky Network Terms not New Zealand broadcast rights Television released Middle East broadcast rights on ADD's ART Prime Sport channel. Will broadcast to United Arab Arab Digital Emirates, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, 10 Years, terms Distribution Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, not released.[21] Syria, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, Libya and Nigeria. Rights to distribute on television, radio, broadband 5 years, terms Willow TV and Internet, for the IPL in North America. not released.[22] Terms not SuperSport South Africa and Nigeria broadcast rights released Terms not GEO Super Pakistan broadcast rights released Canadian broadcast rights. Aired on Pay-per-view Asian Television 5 years, terms channel.Aired on XM Radio's ATN-Asian Radio as Network not released.[23] well. Terms not ITV United Kingdom broadcast rights released [edit] Sponsorships India's biggest property developer DLF Group has paid US $50 million to be the title sponsor of the tournament for 5 years.[2] [edit] Revenue The UK-based brand consultancy has valued the IPL at $4.1 billion. [3] [edit] Global following In India, the IPL has become one of the most popular events of the year[24]. Around the world, reception has varied. In Pakistan the reception was described by Pakistani cricinfo editor Osman Samiuddin as "massive", suggesting that it attracted even non-regular cricket followers and that the popularity of the Kolkata Knight Riders was great.[25] GEO Super telecasted the matches and also included a popular show called Inside IPL. However, reception for the second edition was lukewarm. A similar positive reaction was seen in Sri Lanka, with interest in the Mumbai Indians being large due to the presence of cricket hero Sanath Jayasuriya. Bangladesh has also positively reacted despite only one Bangladeshi player being involved. The Knight Riders were the most popular team. These subcontinental countries were also helped in that the time-slot of the matches fitted in with prime time in these nations. South Africa has seen moderate viewership of the IPL, however, many were unable to relate to any of the teams, although a large number simply supported Mumbai Indians because of the presence of Shaun Pollock. The IPL did not overcome the power of Premier League in England, plus the country's governing body did not allow many English players to take part. The IPL was very popular with the Asian Population. In the West Indies, the IPL became so popular that it, according to Vaneisa Baksh, threatened to overtake test cricket completely in 'certain sections of West Indian fans'. While free-to-air coverage has not been complete and it has not ignited passions, it has remained a popular watch. The IPL was less popular in Australia and New Zealand, mainly due to the time zone differences. Nevertheless, the IPL consistently won its free-to-air timeslot of 8:30 P.M. and 12:30 A.M. Australian Eastern Time, and 10:30 P.M. and 2:30 A.M. New Zealand Time for subscription TV. Snap polls indicate that more than 24 million people watched the telecast of the IPL 2008 finals (Rajasthan Royals v Chennai Super Kings),more than 20 million people saw the Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Daredevils match, whereas the second semi-final between Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab attracted an audience of 19 million.[26] [edit] The BCCI had found itself in the middle of many conflicts with various cricket boards around the world as a result of the IPL.