The Indian Premier League (also known as the "DLF (Delhi Land and Finance) Indian Premier League"), is a Twenty20 Cricket competition created by the Board of Control for Cricket in India(BCCI). It is widely believed to be a reply for the Indian Cricket League (ICL) which was initiated by former Indian captain Kapil Dev. The first season of the Indian Premier League starts today at Bangalore with the opening match being between the Royal Challengers under Rahul Dravid and Kolkatta Knight Riders under Saurav Ganguly.
In all eight teams are taking part in this laegue. The names are Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers, Rajasthan Royals, Bangalore Royal Challengers, Delhi Daredevils, and Kings XI Punjab. They are represented by players from all round the world, many of them maestros in the game. The IPL is spl since in here cricketers who were arch rivals on field will be playing side by side and sometimes again their players from their home team.
This has also become the most lucrative league with players being bid for as much as 1.5 million dollars (M.S. Dhoni) while few others (Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag) were given icen status in which they wud be paid 15% higher than the sums given to others.
The winning bidders for the eight franchises (as the teams were called) were announced on 24th January 2008. While the total base price for auction was US$400 million, the auction fetched US$723.59 million. Teams were bought by names like Mukhesh Ambani (bought Mumbai Indians for $111.9 million) . Even Bollywood entered fray wid Shah Rukh Khan bidding for KKR wid $75.09 million
The BCCI had found itself in the middle of many conflicts with various cricket boards around the world as a result of the IPL. The main point of contention was that signed players should always be available to their country for international tours, even if it overlaps with the IPL season. To address this, the BCCI officially requested that the ICC institute a time period in the International Tours Program solely for the IPL season. This request was not granted at a subsequent meeting held by the ICC. Also there have been problems regarding the cheerleaders. The IPL has been criticised by a few politicians and feminists for bringing in foreign cheerleaders, which is seen by many to not be in the traditional spirit of the game, as well as being against extremely antiquated and ancient Indian sensibilities purported to be upheld by these naysayers.
But no matter wat the contreversies the Indian Premier league is here to stay. It has received so much of publicity and enthusiastic welcome from so many fronts we can be assured that Twenty20 will be a much awaited form of the game wich has captured all the interest worldwide.
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