The Indian Premier League is a franchisee-based T20 competition played domestically in India.
What makes it different from many other such T20 competitions around the world is the amount of salaries paid to the players – much higher than most cricketing tournaments in the world. In terms of player weekly salaries, it matches with the likes of EPL, with players like Gautam Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan getting paid $2.2 million for six weeks of cricket.
The tournament was said to be a brainchild of Lalit Modi, one of the BCCI vice-presidents. He had suggested a tournament on these lines in the early 2000s but it was purportedly rejected by the board. Then, with the unauthorised Indian Cricket League making its way into Indian cricket, the board had no option but to give Modi the green signal to come up with the IPL.
The IPL saw its first team auction in 2007 which were followed by the player auctions for the first edition of the tournament. There were eight teams in the first three seasons with two more added for the fourth edition of the tournament.
By then, Modi had had a fallout with the Indian cricket board and was sacked from his post. He was replaced by Chirayu Ami on an interim basis before Rajeev Shukla took over as the chairman of the IPL.
The rules of the tournament allowed each squad to have not more than 10 foreign players, of which four could make it to the playing 11 of any game. The games were spiced up with a dash of glamour, what with the cheer-leaders, after-match parties and the likes.
The rest of the on-field rules are same as the ones in any international T20 game, with a Powerplay for the first six overs and bowlers allowed to bowl a maximum of four overs only.
As things stand, Chennai Super Kings have won the IPL twice, Rajasthan Royals have won it once and so have the Deccan Chargers. Chennai and Mumbai have been runner-up once apiece while Bangalore were runner-up twice.
