Indian Premier League

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a cricket tournament played in Twenty20 format. IPL, also known as DLF Indian Premier League, was created by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). It is headed by its Chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi, who is also the Vice President of BCCI.

IPL tournaments are slated to be held during the months of April-June every year. IPL saw its first season commence on 18 April 2008 at Bangalore which ended on 1 June 2008 with the victory of Rajasthan Royals in the finals held at the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. The second season is scheduled to begin from 10 April 2009 at Jaipur.

IPL today has become a craze amongst cricket fans. The fast paced matches of IPL promise three hours of action packed play time that keeps the viewers glued to television sets, at homes, streets or wherever they find one.

Apart from the cricketing fun, IPL is a commercial venture to reckon with. The IPL is predicted to bring BCCI an income of around $1 billion over next five to ten years. This can be gauged from the global broadcasting rights that were sold last year for $ 1.026 billion, for a period of ten years. The rights have been secured by a consortium consisting of India's Sony Entertainment Television network and Singapore-based World Sport Group.

The mix of players from around the cricketing world that constitute each team of IPL is what has worked wonders in making it popular not only in India but also other cricket thriving nations. However, what is unique to IPL is that it has managed to attract even the non-regular cricket followers to watching the game in its new found 'avatar'.