The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional league for Twenty20 cricket competition in India. It was initiated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), headquartered in Mumbai,[3][4] and is supervised by BCCI Vice President Chirayu Amin, who serves as the league's Chairman and Commissioner. It is currently contested by 10 teams consisting of players from around the world. It was started after an altercation between the BCCI and the Indian Cricket League.[5] In 2010, IPL became the first sporting event ever to be broadcast live on YouTube in association with Indiatimes.[6] Its brand value is estimated to be around $3.67 billion in fourth season.[7][8] According to global sports salaries review, IPL is the second highest-paid league, based on first- team salaries on a pro rata basis, second only to the NBA. It is estimated that the average salary of an IPL player over a year would be $3.84 million.[9] Contents [hide] 1 History o 1.1 First season o 1.2 Second season o 1.3 Third season o 1.4 Fourth season 2 IPL Trophy o 2.1 2008-2010 o 2.2 2011-2013 3 League organization o 3.1 Franchises o 3.2 Rules 4 Statistics and records o 4.1 Winners o 4.2 Performance of teams o 4.3 Player signings 5 Television rights and sponsorships o 5.1 Television rights o 5.2 Sponsorships o 5.3 Revenue and Profits o 5.4 Mobile applications o 5.5 Official website 6 Global following 7 See also 8 References [edit] History [edit] First season Main article: 2008 Indian Premier League A Chennai vs Kolkata match at the M.A. Chidambaram Cricket Stadium won by Chennai Super Kings. 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, Nerul, 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. [edit] Second season Main article: 2009 Indian Premier League 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,were big underdogs, but came out as eventual winners defeating the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final. Deccan set a target of 144 with the help of Gibbs(53) and defended it. [edit] Third season Main articles: 2010 Indian Premier League and 2010 IPL Player Auction 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. [edit] Fourth season Main articles: 2011 Indian Premier League and 2011 IPL Player Auction Chennai Super Kings are the most successful team in the tournament winning the championship twice and qualifying for the top four every time. On 21 March 2010, it was announced in Chennai that two new teams from Pune and Kochi will be added to the IPL for the fourth 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 BCCI. On 5 December 2010, it was confirmed that Kochi will take part in the fourth season of IPL.[10] 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.[11] But this format was replaced by another one in which each team would play 5 other teams in a two-way round robin format and there would be 2 teams against whom they would play only at home and remaining 2 teams against which they would play only away matches.Thus each team plays 14 matches.Top four teams would qualify for the semi-finals. 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.[12] Two months later both teams were finally allowed to take part in the 2011 edition after a court ruling.[13] Chennai Super Kings won their second consecutive IPL title after defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore by 58 runs in the fourth season of IPL.[14] CSK had beaten RCB in the playoffs too while RCB defeated Mumbai Indians to reach the final. This is the first time a franchise has won two IPL titles, had four consecutive semi-final visits, come to the finals three times, and successfully defended their title. The top three teams namely CSK, RCB and MI have also qualified for the Champions League. Chennai Super Kings are the current Champions League Twenty20 champions.[15] [edit] IPL Trophy [edit] 2008-2010 The diamond-encrusted trophy of DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) Cricket was designed by Orra brand, owned by Antwerp-based Rosy Blue Group. It comprises a player in a gold leafing. He is shown holding a bat in his hand, next to a map of India. On the map, the names of all the IPL teams have been engraved by rubies. It took a team of as many as 14 craftsmen to make the trophy. Every year, the winners of the IPL T20 tournament are presented with a replica of this trophy, along with the prize money. [edit] 2011-2013 A new trophy has been designed for IPL 4 in view of the two new teams which are now in the fray. It has been changed to a large cup instead of a map of India. [edit] League organization [edit] Franchises The winning bidders for the eight franchises were announced on 24 January 2008.[16] While the total base price for auction was US $400 million, the auction fetched US $723.59 million.[17] On 21 March 2010, Pune and Kochi were unveiled as the two new franchises for the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League. The base price was $225 million. While Pune was bought by Sahara Adventure Sports Group for $370 million, the Kochi franchise was bought by Rendezvous Sports World Limited for $333.3 million. The process was to have been completed on March 7 but was postponed by two weeks after many bidders and the BCCI objected to stiff financial clauses.[18] The second franchise auction fetched total $703 million. Head Team Name City Inception Owner(s) Captain Coach Mukesh Ambani Sachin Robin Mumbai Indians Mumbai 2008 (Owners of Tendulkar Singh Reliance Industries) Royal Challengers Vijay Mallya Daniel Ray Bengaluru 2008 Bangalore (UB Group) Vettori Jennings Hyderabad Deccan Hyderabad 2008 T.Venkatram Kumar Darren Chargers Reddy Sangakkara Lehmann (Deccan Chronicle) group India Cements Mahendra Stephen Chennai Super Kings Chennai 2008 (N.Srinivasan) Singh Dhoni Fleming Virender Greg Delhi Daredevils New Delhi 2008 GMR Group Sehwag Shipperd Ness Wadia, Preity Zinta, Dabur, Adam Michael Kings XI Punjab Mohali 2008 Apeejay Gilchrist Bevan Surendera Group Red Chillies Gautam Dav Kolkata Knight Riders Kolkata 2008 Entertainment Gambhir Whatmore Emerging Media (Lachlan Shane Shane Rajasthan Royals Jaipur 2008 Murdoch), Warne Warne Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra Subrato Roy Yuvraj Geoff Pune Warriors India Pune 2011 Sahara Singh Marsh Kochi Cricket Mahela Geoff Kochi Tuskers Kerala Kochi 2011 Private Ltd Jayawardene Lawson [edit] Rules There are five ways that a franchise can acquire a player. In the annual auction, buying domestic players, signing uncapped players, through trading and buying replacements.[19][20] In the trading window the player can only be traded with his consent. The franchise will have to pay the difference between the old contract price and the new contract price. If the new contract is worth more than the older one then the difference will be shared between the player and the franchise selling the player.[21] Some of the Team composition rules are: Minimum squad strength of 16 players plus one physio and a coach. No more than 10 foreign players in the squad and maximum 4 foreign players should be in the playing eleven. Minimum of 8 local players must be included in each squad. A minimum of 2 players from the BCCI under-22 pool in each squad.