Indian Premier League (IPL)

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a league for Twenty20 cricket championship in India. It was initiated by Lalit Modi, who served as the league's first Chairman and Commissioner, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra and is supervised by BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla, who serves as the league's Chairman and Commissioner. It is currently contested by nine teams, consisting of players from around the cricketing world. It was started after an altercation between the BCCI and the Indian Cricket League.

In 2010, IPL became the first sporting event ever to be broadcast live on YouTube. Its brand value is estimated to be around US$2.99 billion in fifth season. However, the league has been the subject of several controversies where allegations of cricket betting, money laundering and spot fixingwere witnessed.

The Premier League is generally considered to be the world's showcase for Twenty20 (T20) cricket, which is the shortest type of cricket. A T20 match only has 20 overs per inning. Top Indian and international players take part in IPL, contributing to what is the world's "richest cricket tournament".

In 2012 the naming rights for the series was awarded to Pepsi Two eligible bids were received, with Pepsi winning over Airtel with a bid of 396.8 crores.

The inaugural season of the tournament ran from 18 April 2008 to 1 June 2008. The group stages featured eight teams playing each other twice - once at home and once away - with the top four overall progressing to the semi-finals.

The final was played in DY Patil Stadium, Nerul, Navi Mumbai. The first winner of the IPL was the Rajasthan Royals, who beat the Chennai Super Kingsin a match that went down to the last ball. Rajasthan's Shane Watson was named player of the tournament. Brendon McCullum scored first century in IPL.

Second season:

The 2009 Indian Premier League season, also known as IPL 2, was the second season of the Indian Premier League. The tournament was held in South Africa because of the General Elections in India and was played for 37 days from 18 April to 24 May 2009. The top four ranking sides progressed to the knockout stage of semi-finals followed by a final. Deccan Chargers beat Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final (these two were 8th and 7th respectively in the previous franchise).

Third season:

The third season returned to India and it was the first IPL tournament that was broadcast live on YouTube. The final four matches of the tournament were screened in 3D across movie halls in India. Chennai Super Kings defeated Mumbai Indians in the finals to win their first title. Lalit Modi was ousted by BCCI as the so-called Commissioner of IPL.

Fourth season:

On 21 March 2010, it was announced in Chennai that two new teams from Pune and Kochi will be added to the IPL for the fourth season. However, the bid around the kochi franchise turned controversial resulting in the resignation of minister, Shashi Tharoor from the Central Government and investigations by various departments of the Government of India into the financial dealings of IPL and the other existing franchises. Later, Lalit Modi was also removed from IPL chairmanship by BCCI. On 5 December 2010, it was confirmed that Kochi will take part in the fourth season of IPL.

The addition of teams representing Sahara Pune Warriors India and the Kochi Tuskers was to have increased the number of franchises from 8 to 10. The BCCI originally considered extending the tournament format used in previous season to ten teams, which would increase the number of matches from 60 to 94. Instead, the round-robin stage of the tournament was to have been replaced by a group stage with two groups of five, limiting the number of matches to 74. But this format was replaced by another one in which each team would play 5 other teams in a two-way round robin format and there would be 2 teams against whom they would play only at home and remaining 2 teams against which they would play only away matches.Thus each team plays 14 matches.Top four teams would qualify for the semi-finals.

In October 2010, the Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab had their franchises terminated for breaching ownership rules. The new Kochi franchise was also issued a warning to resolve all their ownership disputes. Two months later both teams were finally allowed to take part in the 2011 edition after a court ruling.

Chennai Super Kings won their second consecutive title after defeating the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 58 runs in the final. This is the first time a franchise has won two titles. The top four teams qualified for the 2011 Champions League Twenty20, which the Mumbai Indians won.

Fifth season:

The fifth season featured nine teams after the termination of the Kochi franchise. The players auction was held on 4 February 2012. This season saw an increase in the allowed maximum number of players in each squad from 30 to 33. The season of 76 matches began and ended in Chennai, Tamil Nadu with the opening match on 4 April and the final on 27 May.The Delhi Daredevils,Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings qualified for the playoffs. The final of the season was played at the Chidambaram Stadium on 27 May, where the defending champions Chennai Super Kings played against the Kolkata Knight Riders. Kolkata Knight Riders won the match in the last over riding on the backs of Manoj Tiwary and Shakib Al Hasan with 5 wickets and 2 balls to spare.

This edition of the IPL was the most competitive with 14 matches producing results in the very last over, and a couple in the last ball. Towards the end of the league, the season faced various hurdles including a spot fixing case, which allegedly included 5 players caught on a sting operation carried on by a local news channel; India TV.[The fifth season is often considered as the most controversial Indian Premier League organised.

Sixth season :

Pepsi replaced DLF as the title sponsor. Nine teams are participating in the sixth season. The sixth season opened on 3 April 2013 with the player auction broadcast on Sony Six. 108 players were on offer but only 37 players were sold for US$ 11.87 million. The Australian all rounder Glenn Maxwell was the only million dollar buy. The Deccan Chargers franchise having been terminated by the IPL governing council, their spot was taken by the Sunrisers Hyderabad. The new team retains most of the players from the Deccan Chargers team. The tournament is scheduled to run from 3 April to 26 May 2013 with Kolkata and Delhi hosting the playoffs. Kolkata's Eden Gardens will host the first match as well as the final as they were the champions of the 2012 season. Due to protests in the state of Tamil Nadu, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalitha has requested the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh not to allow any Sri Lankan players, umpires or any other support staff to play in IPL matches to be held in Chennai.

Controversy hit IPL again with 3 players (Ajit Chandila, Ankeet Chavan and Sreesanth) arrested by the Mumbai police on May 16 on charges of spot-fixing.Vindu Dara Singh was also arrested on charges of spot-fixing and alleged links to bookies during IPL 6.

The Chennai Super Kings, the Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals and the Sunrisers Hyderabad were the four teams in the league stage to qualify for the playoffs.

On 21 May 2013, the Chennai Super Kings defeated the Mumbai Indians in the first qualifier in Delhi by 48 runs and became the first team through to the finals . On the same day, Pune franchisee owner Sahara Group (owner of Pune Warriors India) decided to pull out of IPL. This decision was taken after Sahara failed to pay IPL dues.

On 22 May 2013, the Rajasthan Royals defeated the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the eliminator in Delhi by 4 wickets.

On 24 May 2013, Mumbai Indians defeated Rajasthan Royals in the second qualifier and faced Chennai Super Kings in the final.

On 26 May 2013, Mumbai Indians defeated Chennai Super Kings by 23 runs for their first title win. Mahendra Singh Dhoni of Chennai Super Kings scored an unbeaten 63 of 45 balls Michael Hussey and Dwayne Bravo of Chennai Super Kings are Highest run getter and wicket taker of IPL 2013 Edition.