Indian Premier League 20 20

Indian Premier League, popularly called the IPL 20-20, is a hugely successful T 20 cricket tournament organized by BCCI. If the name “Indian Premier League” sounds suspiciously similar to English Premier League, the resemblance is deliberate. The popular football (soccer, that is) championship is the model on which the cricket tournament has been fashioned. Since its inception, the IPL 20 20 has managed to capture the imagination of cricket lovers worldwide. Its innovative format, coupled with massive marketing push have transformed the game of cricket. IPL 20 20 infused more passion into the Indian audience, who are already die hard cricket lovers.

The IPL twenty 20 championship is credited to be the brainchild of Mr Lalit Modi, who is also the IPL Commissioner. The runaway success of the inaugural edition of IPL turned Lalit Modi – a little known entity till then - into a household name in India. There is no doubt that it is indeed a brilliant marketing coup, which capitalizes on the Indian craze for cricket by presenting it in an innovative format.

The tournament attracted unprecedented viewership due to massive marketing efforts, and a lot of non-playing activities associated with the event contributed to it. The way players were auctioned before the tournament was something never witnessed before in the history of Indian cricket. It was slightly strange to see players being bought and sold under the hammer. A British auctioneer, Richard Madley, was especially flown in for the purpose.

Another aspect of the IPL that garnered much attention was the ownership of the teams – now called franchises. Almost all the teams were brought by flamboyant individuals, ranging from industrialists to film stars, thus adding to the glamour quotient. Prominent among the owners are – Mukesh Ambani ( a billionaire industrialist, and owner of Mumbai Indians) and Vijay Mallya ( a liquor tycoon, owner of Royal Bangalore Challengers). The glamour quotient is added by Shahrukh Khan (Kolkata Knight Riders), Preity Zinta ( along with partner Ness Wadia, owner of Kings XI Punjab) and Shilpa Shetty (co owner of Rajasthan Royals). A few corporate houses also pitched in – Deccan Chronicle, a Hyderabad based newspaper, bought Deccan Chargers, while GMR Holdings bought Delhi Daredevils and India Cements sponsored Chennai Super Kings.

Cheerleaders were introduced into Indian sports for the first time. Again, a number of cheerleading teams were flown in from USA. Each of the eight IPL teams have their own cheerleaders, while some teams like Vijay Mallya’s Bangalore Royal Challengers have added an extra dash of glamour by appointing Katrina Kaif as the ‘official’ cheerleader of the team! The IPL cheerleaders have certainly provided Indian cricket fans with a talking point, and some eye candy to boot! However, there has been some controversy regarding IPL cheerleaders – some point out that they provide a needless distraction to spectators from the game itself!

Eight different teams, or franchises, have participated in the last two editions of IPL in 2008 and 2009. There was a move to introduce another two teams into the IPL from the current edition itself, but the plan has been shelved due to lack of corporate bids for the teams. It is expected that IPL 2011 will see the debut of two new IPL teams in the T- 20 arena.

The original eight IPL franchises are -

Chennai Super Kings (Owned by India Cements)

Deccan Chargers (Owned by VR Reddy of Deccan Chronicle)- winners of IPL 2009

Delhi Daredevils (owned by GMR Holdings)

Kings XI Punjab ( Owned by a consortium of Preity Zinta and fiancé Ness Wadia, Mohit Burman fom Dabur and Karan Paul)

Kolkata Knight Riders ( Owned by Red Chillies Entertainment owners Sharukh Khan &Gauri Khan, and Juhi Chawla & husband J Mehta)

Mumbai Indians (Owned by Mukesh Ambani)

Rajasthan Royals (Owned by Emerging Media and Shilpa Shetty & Raj Kundra) – winners of IPL 2008

Royal Challengers Bangalore (owned by Vijay Mallya of Kingfisher fame).

The first edition of IPL in 2008 firmly established Twenty 20 format into the cricket firmament. The marketing ploy proved to be brilliantly successful, with stadiums packed to capacity, and television viewership running into hundreds of millions of viewers.

The first edition of IPL was inaugurated in April, with a total of 59 matches, which were played on a round robin and knockout basis. In a true ‘victory to the underdog’ fashion, the trophy was won by Rajasthan Royals in a thrilling final.

Indian Premier League tournament in South Africa – may sound a little strange, but that is what happened in the second year of the IPL. The General Elections of 2009 took away much of the security focus towards the election process, and the authorities could not commit themselves fully to the security of the IPL tournament. In a controversial decision, Lalit Modi took IPL 2009 to South Africa. The South African Cricket Board and authorities did a commendable job of hosting the IPL 2009 at a very short notice.

IPL 2009 had the same format and the number of matches as the inaugural edition. The tournament was again won by an underdog team- the Deccan Chargers, who had incidentally ranked eighth in the 2008 tournament.

The IPL Twenty 20 has returned to where it belongs - India – and the TV ad campaigns are telling the viewers - “We Missed You Too”. Admittedly, IPL 2010 also started on a slightly wrong footing – this time, the controversy related to the non-selection of Pakistani players by any of the franchises. The incident has already generated much bad blood between the two cricketing giants, India and Pakistan, and promised to turned into a full blown diplomatic row between the two countries.

The original plan to include another two teams from this edition also tanked, with the BCCI bids ‘not generating enough interest’, though a couple of leading corporate had offered US$ 300 million each for the teams against the reserve price of US$ 225 millions! Many suspect that IPL bosses wanted a much higher amount for the teams, and they are willing to wait another year before they can get the right price.

IPL 20 20 has been often accused of demeaning the genteel game of Cricket, and many cricket boards have expressed their concerns regarding the ‘clash of interests’ with national team commitments. The Australian and English cricket boards have been particularly vocal on the issue, and have even refused to let their players participate in the previous versions of Indian Premier League. It is interesting to note that the previous two trophies were won by teams led by ‘former’ Aussies, Shane Warne (2008) and Adam Gilchrist (2009). Whatever be the final result of IPL 2010, it is certain that IPL is here to stay, and will go from strength to strength in the future.