History of the IPL
Even though the league only has existed for 12 seasons. Which seems very young for a sport that is older than the country USA. The leauge has quickly become the premiere event in the Cricket world, topped maybe only by the world cup.
It was formed back in 2008 by the Board of Control for Cricket in India and has mostly been credited with the reason for T20's rise in popularity over the later years.
As of the IPL 2019, there are 8 teams competing for the elusive title and a chance to compete in the Champions League Twenty20. Given that there are a lot of money sloshing around and plenty of money to win if you get the title, many teams have tried pouring a lot into a team, without much result and thus ending it quickly. After 11 seasons, five teams have fallen under to the tough competition, but we are likely to see new ones emerge in the future and the competition intenify even more!
Its the most attended cricket league in the world.
It has the biggest stars from all over the world.
It has the biggest payouts.
For the most part there have been 8 teams.
The tipping point for the IPL came in September 2017 when Rupert Murdoch’s Star India bought the five-year global media rights for an unprecedented $2.55 billion, making the IPL one of the richest sports properties in the world.
T20 really is a format for the modern world.
And the Indian Premiere League has in all ways been in the forefront of everything related to T20.
With the newfound level of financial security from the IPL, suddenly lower level income people were given an opportunity to play cricket for a living. In India of course, but also all over the world.
And its not only money but its a stage for the players to get noticed on.
Where we can discover the next superstar. Once you have this amount of talent compressed to one area, you get a growing grounds for cricket learning.
As we talked about earlier in this article, the IPL has had continous growth in its viewer numbers and thus success, which in turn has made businesses all over the world interested in getting a piece of the pie.
2008-2012
From 2008 and up until 2012, DLF was the title sponsor of the IPL and paid about ₹200 crore (about $36 million) for the right to be so. After this period DLF decided to not renew their contract, likely because the great success the IPL saw had the prize sky rocket during those years.
2013
PepsiCo took over in 2013, and would be the head sponsor for the next five years, paying a about ₹400 crore (about $70 million) for that right.
Although this contract ended early, most likely because of the IPL 2013 scandals, they quickly found a new title sponsor in VIVO. They paid a bit ₹190 crore to finish the remaining two seasons of PepsiCo's contract.
2017
In the summer of 2017, VIVO retained the title sponsorship for 2018-2022 when they bid a massive ₹2200 crore (about $310 million), making this one of the most expensive title sponsorships in all of sports.
Other sponsorships includes Tata Motors as the official partners for the next three years, and also Star India who won the IPL media rights from 2017 to 2022, with a massive bid of $2.55 billion. Beating out both Sony and Facebook
This deal costs about $8.5 million per match for Stars, in comparison each match in the English Premiere league match costs $13.5 millions.
And its no wonder they are willing to pay out these amazing sums.
Cricket is the biggest sport in India, by far. In fact 1.3 billion(!) people watched the the league. And cricket attracts an amazing 61% of all team sponsorship in the country (source)
This is not to mention all the lucrative deals all the individual teams have and the huge salaries you can see the players get. Money is pouring into this tournament, and it does not looks like it is about to stop.
Scandals in the Indian Premiere League
In many ways the IPL has been the bad of cricket. Lets look at some of the more unfortunate reasons for its claim to fame.
A lot of the conflicts the IPL has been with International cricket. The federations expect their players to be ready to play for their countries even if there are scheduling conflicts with the IPL.
On the other hand the IPL wanted their season to be cleared of international matches.
With all the success of the IPL they are what we would consider to have "won" the conflict, as the best players prioritize the IPL over international matches.
But really in these kind of conflicts, the true loser is cricket. We hope the IPl and the ICC can figure this out to the best of fans and players alike.
The England and Wales board of cricket (ECB) even attempted to create their own T20 league.
While this has been a reasonable success, it in no way has been close to competing with the IPL. And the league has not been controversy free themselves, having to part way with their initial main sponsor.
Pakistani players not being able to play 2009 - present
After the Mumbai terrorist attacks in (2008) there became even more political tension between Pakistan and India. And cricket players from Pakistan were not allowed to play in the IPL. Hopefully this can be remedied and there can be some form of comradery built in the bonds of cricket.
Chairman and founder sacked 2010
Even the highest authority in the IPL was not safe, and after charges of financial wrongdoing he was removed from the board. And a few years later banned for life from having anything to do with cricket.
Kochi Tuskers failure 2011
A new franchise joined the IPl, but alas the same year they were gone. They failed to pay its bank guarantee, so consequently they were removed.
Spot fixing 2012 - ?
In 2012 the Indian news channel India TV went undercover and got five players to agree to spot fixing, the five players where suspended from the league. But the question about the integrity of the IPL was clear.
The same year it was revealed that some teams paid players under the table.
To combat this problem the IPL changed their policy away from a fixed salary for domestic players, towards the system already in place for the auctions of overseas players.
In 2013, 3 players were arrested charged by the police for spot fixing. They were later handed life bans
Pune Warriors exit 2013
The owners of Pune Warriors pulled out of the league amid financial quarrels with the BCCI.
The big purge 2015
In an effort to clean Indian Cricket of corruption a supreme court-appointed panel suspended both Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for two years. Alot of the BCCI top guys were also removed.
As we all know, the Chennai Super Kings were not too much hindered by their suspension and won in their comeback year.
Drought and the IPL 2016
In 2016 the Bombay high court ordered that the IPL could not play any matches in the state of Maharashtra. This was because of a big drought, and the watering and maintaining cricket grounds was not a priority.
This meant 13 matches relocated, including the final game.