100 Things about Indian Premier League (IPL)

Indian Premier League (IPL) has created a lot of attention in the cricket world. In India, almost all the TV news channels are giving information about IPL. Many websites and newspapers have also given substantial coverage to IPL 2008. Here in this blog, we are very busy with our last minutes effort too. We have tried to give a lot of information and point you to some useful things. Now, we have taken an effort to compile a list of 100 things about Indian Premier League (IPL). Here, you will find links to some useful articles, reports, entries etc.

1. Indian Premier League (IPL) is the richest cricket tournament in the world.

2. BCCI is the organizer of IPL.

3. IPL will start on 18 April 2008.

4. The opening ceremony will take place in Bangalore.

5. Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan will be present in the opening ceremony.

6. Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Kolkata Knight Riders is the first match of IPL.

7. Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly will be the captains of these two clubs.

8. There will be some cheer leaders from USA to entertain the spectators in the opening day.

9. Star cricketers from all over the world are going to play in Indian Premier League (IPL).

10. IPL will be a Twenty20 format tournament.

11. Some South African players may miss a couple of matches as they have home duty.

12. Schedule of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2008 is in this link.

13. The rights of official website has been sold for $50 million to a Canadian company.

14. The rates of advertisement for TV is a bit high.

15. The people of Kolkata will perhaps see a battle of Mithun Chakraborty vs Shah Rukh Khan.

16. BCCI announced the plan of IPL after ICL came into existence.

17. No national cricket team is playing in IPL. So, fans may have a tough time to decide which team to support.

18. 8 clubs are playing in Indian Premier League 2008.

19. IPL matches will be shown live in all corners of the world.

20. Major cricket based websites like Cricinfo will have a tough time to cover IPL matches.

21. Indian Premier League would be telecast live in almost every continent of the world in different television channels.

22. A conglomerate comprising of India’s Sony Television Network and World Sport Group from Singapore has bought the global broadcasting right of Indian Premier League (IPL) for US$1.026 billion for ten years.

23. According to the deal, the consortium of Sony Television Network and World Sport Group will pay US$918 million to BCCI for the telecast right of IPL and US$108 million for promoting the tournament.

24. For the next five years meaning 2008-2012, IPL would get 20% of the money, while 72% would go to the eight franchises of IPL and 8% is allocated for prize money. After 2012, IPL would get a bigger share of the money.

25. In India, Sony SET Max would telecast the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches live for the Indian cricket fans.

26. Ten Networks television channel of Australia would bring the IPL matches live in Australia for free to air.

27. Willow television is going to telecast all of the IPL’s 59 matches live for the North American cricket fans.

28. In Canada, Asian Television Network International Limited (ATN) has got the broadcast right of Indian Premier League (IPL) matches. ATN operated CBN would telecast the matches of IPL live in Canada.

29. Arab Digital Distribution (ADD) has secured the rights of telecasting IPL matches in different countries of the Middle East. The matches will be telecast live in ADD’s ART Prime Sport television channel.

30. The cricket fans of UK and Ireland are going to enjoy the IPL matches live on Setanta Sports television channel.

31. In Indian Premier League, the eight participating clubs are based on different cities and provinces of India.

32. All of the eight franchises have different owners, who bought the clubs for 10 years for a whopping sum of money.

33. Among the owners, there are business personalities, media personnel and Bollywood actors.

34. The eight teams of Indian Premier League (IPL) are- Bangalore Royal Challengers Squad (Bangalore franchise of IPL), Chennai Super Kings Squad (Chennai franchise of IPL), Deccan Chargers Squad (Hyderabad franchise of IPL), Delhi Daredevils Squad (Delhi franchise of IPL), Kings XI Punjab Squad (the Punjab franchise of IPL), Kolkata Knight Riders Squad (Kolkata franchise of IPL), Mumbai Indians Squad (Mumbai franchise of IPL) and Rajasthan Royals Squad (Rajasthan franchise of IPL).

35. Mumbai Indians club of IPL was bought by Mukesh Ambani and Reliance Industries Limited for $111.9 million, which is the highest amount spent to buy an IPL club.

36. India’s Business tycoon Dr. Vijay Mallya and his UB group are the owner of Bangalore Royal Challengers for which they spent second highest $111.6 million.

38. Deccan Chronicle, an English language newspaper published in Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu, owns the Deccan Chargers, for which the newspaper spent a $107 million.

39. Chennai Super Kings is owned by India Cements and N Srinivasan for which $91 million was spent.

40. GMR Holdings paid $84 million for the ownership of Delhi DareDevils.

42. Actress Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Karan Paul (Apeejay Surendera Group) and Mohit Burman (Dabur) are owners of Kings XI Punjab, for which they spent $76 million.

43. Kolkata Knight Riders is owned by Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla Mehta and Jai Mehta. They paid $75.09 million to secure the ownership of the club for 10 years.

44. Emerging Media: (Manoj Badale, Lachlan Murdoch, Suresh Chellaram) owns the Rajasthan Royals club. It spent $67 million to become the owner of the club for 10 years and this is the lowest paid amount for an IPL team.

45. From selling the club ownership, Indian Premier League (IPL) got US$723.59 million from the auction of the bidding. The amount is way more than the base price of auction, US$400 million.

46. Though there are many star players from different cricket playing countries, there is no player from England in the first edition of Indian Premier League.

47. Five out of eight teams of Indian Premier League (IPL) have an icon player. The five teams that include an icon player each are- Bangalore Royal Challengers, Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians, Delhi DareDevils and Kolkata Knight Riders.

48. An Icon player did not take part in the auction of the players. Rather, they were selected by IPL authority to lead a particular team based on the city or province from where the icon players hail.

49. The icon players are paid 15% more than the next highest paid players in their respective teams.

50. The icon players are- Sachin Tendulkar for Mumbai Indians, Yuvraj Singh for Kings XI Punjab, Sourav Ganguly for Kolkata Knight Riders, Virender Sehwag for Delhi DareDevils and Rahul Dravid for Bangalore Royal Challengers. V.V.S. Laxman was also offered to become the icon player for Deccan Chargers, but he rejected it thinking of the financial benefit of his club in the player auction.

51. The captains of the eight IPL teams are- Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai Indians), Sourav Ganguly (Kolkata Knight Riders), Rahul Dravid (Bangalore Royal Challengers), Yuvraj Singh (Kings XI Punjab), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings), Virender Sehwag (Delhi DareDevils), V. V. S. Laxman (Deccan Chargers) and Shane Warne (Rajasthan Royals).

52. Shane Warne is the only foreign captain in the first season of Indian Premier League (IPL).

53. Indian Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has become the highest paid player of Indian Premier League as he signed for Chennai Super Kings for a whopping $1,500,000.

54. Andrew Symonds becomes the highest paid foreign player. He was signed by Deccan Chargers for $1,350,000.

55. Kings XI Punjab spent highest amount of money in the player auction. The Punjab team spent $6,503,750 for including the stars like Brett Lee, Irfan Pathan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Ramnaresh Sarwan etc.

56. The other teams also spent huge amount in the player bidding auction of Indian premier league (IPL). Bangalore Royal Challengers spent $5,795,000, Chennai Super Kings spent $6,225,000, Delhi DareDevils $6,372,500, Deccan Chargers spent $6,105,000, Rajasthan Royals spent $3,610,000, Kolkata Knight Riders spent $6,222,500, Kings XI Punjab spent $6,503,750 and Mumbai Indians $5,496,250.

57. In IPL 2008, the first edition of the Indian Premier League, there will be 59 matches.

58. All of Indian Premier League (IPL) teams have a home ground.

59. In the group stage, each of the eight participating teams will play against each other twice; once at home and another at away.

60. The four teams with highest points earned after the end of the group stage will progress to the semi final of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2008.

61. The winners of the semi final round will face each other in the tournament final due to take place on 1 June.

62. The semi final and the final match of the tournament will take place at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.

63. The home grounds of the eight teams are- M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore for Bangalore Royal Challengers; Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh for Kings XI Punjab; Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi for Delhi Daredevils; Eden Gardens, Kolkata for Kolkata Knight Riders; Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur for Rajasthan Royals; MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai for Chennai Super Kings; Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad for Deccan Chargers. However, Mumbai Indians will play two different home grounds: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai and Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai.

64. Not more than two matches will take place in a day. If there are two matches scheduled in a day then the first match will kick off at 16:00 local time (10:30 GMT) and the second match will start at 20:00 local time (14:30 GMT). However, if there is only one match then the match will kick off at 20:00 local time (14:30 GMT).

65. Each of eight teas of Indian Premier League (IPL) consists of some local and some foreign cricketers.

66. According to the IPL rules, a team can not spent more than $5 million for buying players for 2008.

67. Each of the players has come through a bidding process in the player auction, except the icon players.

68. If a player remains completely unavailable in the season or can not play 25% matches of his respective teams, then 25% of the player fee bid in the player action will not be counted within the $5 million mark set up by IPL for the participating teams.

69. As per the IPL rules, each of the IPL teams must have a squad of at minimum 16 players for the tournament.

70. Each of the participating teams can include maximum 8 foreign players in the squad.

71. Not more than 4 foreign players can be taken in the final XI of a match.

72. A squad must include minimum 4 under 22-year old players (as of 1 April of the season).

73. According to IPL rules, each of the teams must include at least four players from the catchment area. The catchment areas are decided on the basis of a player’s registration with his local cricket association.

74. No Objection Certificate (NOC) must be required for a player from the cricket board of his country to take part in Indian Premier League.

75. According to Cricket Australia, the regulatory body of cricket in Australia, no IPL franchise can include more than two Cricket Australia centrally contracted players and more than two players from each State Association in Australia.

76. A team must spend minimum $3.3 million on players’ fees for 2008.

77. Each of the IPL teams includes a catchment area from where it has to include at least four players. The catchment areas for each team are- Mumbai (Mumbai, Maharashtra and Vidarbha), Bangalore (Karnataka, Goa and Services), Chennai (Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Railways), Kolkata (Bengal, Jharkhand, Assam, Tripura and associate member Sikkim), Hyderabad (Hyderabad, Andhra and Orissa), Delhi (Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh), Mohali (Haryana, Punjab, Himachal and Jammu & Kashmir) and Jaipur (Rajasthan, Gujarat, Baroda and Saurashtra).

78. Bangalore Royal Challengers has a 24-player squad in which 10 players are from abroad. There are four under 22 players in the squad.

79. Former Indian pace medium fast bowler Venkatesh Prasad is the coach of Bangalore Royal Challengers.

80. Chennai Super Kings squad also comprises of 24 players in which there are 7 foreign players and 6 under 22 players.

81. Kepler Wessels is the coach of Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2008 tournament.

82. Deccan Chargers squad includes 20 players in total in which 8 players are from abroad and 6 under 22 players.

83. Former Indian all rounder Robin Singh is the coach of Deccan Chargers.

84. There are 21 players in the Delhi Daredevils squad including 8 foreign players and 5 under 22 players.

85. Greg Shipperd is the coach of Delhi Daredevils team.

86. Kings XI Punjab has a squad of 25 players in which 9 are from abroad. There are 8 under 22 players in the squad.

87. Former coach of Sri Lanka national cricket team Tom Moody is the coach of Kings XI Punjab.

88. Kolkata Knight Riders includes 22 players in the squad including 8 foreign players and 6 under 22 players.

89. Former Australia national cricket team coach John Buchanan has been appointed as the coach of Kolkata Knight Riders.

90. Mumbai Indians squad consists of 27 players including 8 players from abroad and 4 under 22 players.

91. Lalchand Rajput is the coach of Mumbai Indians team.

92. Rajasthan Royals includes 26 players in its squad in which there are 10 foreign players and 4 under 22 players.

93. Former Australian great Shane Warne will be seen as both captain and coach of Rajasthan Royals.

94. DLF Universal, a real estate developer from India, has become the title sponsor of Indian Premier League (IPL) for five years for INR 200 crore (over US$50 million).

95. Hero Honda has come under a deal of US$22.5 million to become the associate sponsor of Indian Premier League (IPL) for five years.

96. Soft-drink company Pepsi has become the tournament's Official Beverage for five years by signing a deal of USD 12.5 million.

97. Signing a five year deal for Rs. 106 crores (appx. US$ 26.5 million), Kingfisher Airlines has become the IPL's umpire partner by which the company can advertise in umpire’s clothes and sponsor third umpire’s decision during the matches for next five years.

98. From all the revenues of sponsorship rights, 40% will go to IPL, 54% will be given to the eight franchises, and the remaining 6% will be spent for prize money.

99. Indian Cricket League (IPL) has gained the approval of ICC.

100. Indian Premier League (IPL) offers a whopping Rs 12 crore prize money. The champion team of IPL 2008 would receive a cheque of Rs 4.8 crore. The runner up side will be awarded Rs 2.4 crore. Even the last placed team will be given Rs 40 lakh. The two losing semi finalists can get a cheque of Rs 1.2 crore each. The fifth, sixth and seventh placed teams, as per the points achieved in group stage will be given Rs 80 lakh, Rs 70 lakh and Rs 50 lakh respectively.