“IPL has changed the dynamics of the cricket economy.”
The statement is precisely true as India has been the country with immense love for cricketand IPL has taken it to another level altogether. The league is one of the premier domestic cricket series that’s been organized by the IPL Governing Council and the governing body is the Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI.
The domestic annual Twenty20 cricket tournament, called Indian Premier League was founded in 2008. Currently, in its 12th year, the tournament is recognized as the most-attended cricket tournament across the globe. In 2016 the IPL earned the sixth spot in terms of average audience turnover amid all the sports tournaments.
In 2010, the Indian Premier League became the first sport to be broadcasted on YouTube that too in the live form. As per the BCCI records, IPL 2015 tournament contributed US$160 million to the Indian economy’s GDP. But hey this isn’t the end of the story. Stated by the Duff & Phelps the brand value of the IPL was US$6.7 billion in 2019. Now, that’s unbelievable, right?
The Indian Premier League is extremely popular in the fantasy sports landscape and these fantasy games keep going on throughout the season where the fantasy owners cherry-pick their favorite cricketers to build virtual squads and compete against each other for winning lucrative rewards.
Let’s explore the history and journey of IPL, one of the most popular sports championships. So, let’s walk through the saga of the Indian Premier League about how it all started and reached where it is standing right now.
How The Indian Premier League Was Born And Evolved Over The Time?
Zee Entertainment Enterprises was the seed investor for Indian Cricket League (ICL) that was founded in 2007 but wasn’t recognized by ICC or BCCI. Both the institutions weren’t pleased with the league’s committee and going forward it was banned.
In 2007 September, BCCI launched a franchise-driven T20 cricket league which has been evolved to what we witness as the IPL today. Lalit Modi who was handling the vice-presidentship of BCCI at that time is considered as the mastermind behind conceptualizing the idea of the Indian Premier League.
Eight teams that were declared as the winning bidders named Delhi, Bangalore, Mohali, Kolkata Hyderabad, Jaipur, Chennai, and Mumbai. Since then the tournament has added a couple of new franchises and terminated a few of them. As of now, the league comprises a total of eight teams and every squad is all set to face the IPL 2020.
The tournament is played based on the round-robin format where each squad comes in front of each other twice and in the end, there are four teams to enter the playoffs. The top-most two teams in the standings play the first qualifier game and the winning squad enters the finals. The remaining two teams play the eliminator match and the one at the winning end gets a chance to play in the finals.
Coming to the prize money for the tournament in IPL 2019 the total amount was US$7.0 million from which the winning squad (Mumbai Indians) got US$2.8 million. The first and the second runners-up earned US$1.8 million US$1.2 million and the one in the fourth place got US$1.2 million.
The Viewership Statistics
A total of 411 million views watched the IPL in 2019, according to the official broadcast partner Star India and Broadcasting Audience Research Agency. Star India holds the broadcasting rights for the IPL 2018-2022. They bought them at a whopping INR 16,347 crore. The biggest advertisers in 2019, were Oppo India, Coca Cola, Vivo India Mobile, Vini Cosmetics and Fx Mart. Together, advertisers spent upwards of 2,000 crores to convert the viewers of IPL into their customers.
Wouldn’t You Want To Have A Glimpse Of The IPL Journey By Exploring Every Season?
Among all the IPL teams Mumbai Indians have been the most successful squads in the history of the championship by grabbing the title four times. Other teams such as the Chennai Super Kings, KKR, and Rajasthan Royals have showcased phenomenal skills throughout the seasons to date. Let’s look at the season-wise journey of the tournament and explore some of the magical moments:
In the inaugural Indian Premier League season (2008) the Jaipur powerhouse Rajasthan Royals defeated the Chennai Super Kings by 3 wickets at the DY Patil Stadium. The Aussie batsman Shane Watson was awarded the player of the tournament award. Sohail Tanwir and Shaun Marsh won the purple and orange cap respectively for their amazing performances.
The IPL season (2009) was conquered by the Deccan Chargers against Royal Challenger Bangalore just by six runs at the Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg. The Australian attacking batting wizard Adam Gilchrist won the player of the series award by hitting smashing 495 runs. One of the best performances of his career.
The next two seasons of the Indian Premier League were won by the Chennai Super Kings. In the former season (IPL 2010) they defeated the Mumbai Indians by 22 runs and in the latter (2011) Royal Challengers Bangalore lost against CSK by 58 runs. Sachin Tendulkar was named the player of the tournament for the 2010 season and Chris Gayle from RCB was the highest run-getter and the player of the series in the 2011 season.
In 2012, Kolkata Knight Riders defeated the Mumbai Indians by 5 wickets and the Trinididuan cricketer Sunil Narine was the hero of the series. Mumbai took over the next IPL season and won the 2013 tournament against Chennai Super Kings by 23 runs.
The 2014 season of the Indian Premier League was again won by the KKR playing by 3 wickets against the Kings XI Punjab and the Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell named the player of the tournament.
In 2015, Mumbai Indians won the tournament in Eden Gardens by defeating the Chennai Super Kings by 41 runs. The West Indian cricketing powerhouse Andre Russel was named as the player of the series who was in the Kolkata Knight Riders squad at that time.
The IPL 2016 season was a little different than others as the Sunrisers Hyderabad won the title for the very first time by defeating the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 8 runs. Virat Kohli representing the RCB team won the player of the series award by scoring smashing 973 runs.
Mumbai Indians made a comeback in the league again in the next season by conquering the Indian Premier League title in 2017. They defeated Rising Pune Supergiant by 1 run and the England all-rounder Ben Stokes named the player of the series. Two players from the Sunrisers Hyderabad David Warner and Bhuvneshwar Kumar grabbed the orange and purple caps respectively for showcasing their amazing performances at the batting and bowling fronts.
In 2018, Chennai Superkings won the IPL trophy by defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad by 8 wickets and again the Sunil Narine from KKR was named the player of the tournament. Sunrisers’ skipper Kane Williamson was the orange cap winner as he was the leading run-getter of the series.
The last season (2019) was conquered by the Mumbai Indian squad as they defeated the Chennai Super Kings by just 1 run to grab the title in a thrilling final match. Once again Andre Russell from the Kolkata Knight Riders won the player of the tournament award and David Warner from the Sunrisers’ was the highest run-scorer and the winner of the orange cap.
How About Exploring Some Of The Magical Moments & The Finest Records Made In The History Of IPL Till Date?
After walking through the season-wise IPL voyage let’s have a look at some of the best records and magical moments the league till date:
I. The Royal Challenger Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli holds the record of scoring maximum runs 5412 in 169 innings. He has hit 480 fours and 190 sixes in these matches. Besides, his team holds the record of making the highest total (263/5) against Pune Warriors in 2013.
II. The West Indian run machine Chris Gayle holds the record of making most sixes (326) in IPL history. Also, he has made the highest individual score (175) against Pune Warriors in just 66 balls going not out. His smashing innings included 17 sixes and 14 fours.
III. The Indian batting star Shikhar Dhawan holds the record of hitting a maximum number of fours (524) in the Indian Premier League history.
IV. Lasith Malinga from the Mumbai Indian squad holds the record of taking most wickets (170) in the IPL to date. Alzarri Joseph from the same team has the best bowling figure by taking 6 wickets and giving just 12 runs against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
V. The Punjab bowling powerhouse Harbhajan Singh from the Chennai Super Kings squad holds the record of delivering most dot balls (1249) in the Indian Premier League to date.
What’s In Store For The IPL Fans In 2020?
As the auction for the IPL 2020 has concluded, the fans are extremely excited to witness the magic and craziness on the fields again blended with a whole lot of action and drama. Concluding, the Indian Premier League is one of the biggest extravaganza of the sports industry in India. From a sporting event, this tournament has become a festival, with a brand value of millions of dollars. For the players, teams and brands. And with the rising penetration of smartphones in India and the low cost of internet, the growth of IPL is predicted to grow many folds from the last year.
With potential players like Pat Cummins, Piyush Chawla, Gayle,
Kohli, AB de Villiers everyone is hoping to see the
finest T20 cricket of all time. Keeping our fingers crossed as well!
