Introduction
Since the 2000’s, Indian Cricket has made path-breaking changes to realize its true potential. Arguably one of the richest boards amongst all the cricket-playing nations, the Indian Board, The Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) made sound moves to keep Indian cricket at the top of the sport and also made it one of the richest amongst all cricket-playing nations.
While the T20 format was started as an experiment by most nations, the fast-paced format quickly gained popularity and began to dominate cricket series. All respective cricket boards began increasing the number of T20 matches to cover up for the fall of interest in the longer formats of the game
Presented By: Raghunath Nair
Updated on: 31/05/2023
The Evolution of the Indian Premier League| League History | Evolution and Impact
India hardly played any T20 matches before the Worldcup, but the maiden T20 World Cup win had an immediate impact on the way Cricket was watched and followed in India.
India’s victory at the 2007, T20 World Cup, pushed the BCCI to announce a franchise-based T20 tournament called the Indian Premier League (IPL).
2008 was the introduction of the Indian Premier League, the first franchise-driven sport of its size which put Indian Cricket on the global map. It started with much spectacle and splendor and continues to mesmerize Cricket fans even after 15 years. The IPL Impact has helped the sport gain popularity after each passing year and the extravagance of the sport has only increased.
A twenty-twenty cricket match was first introduced by the England and Wales cricket board in 2003. But Indian Premier League is largely given the credit for making it immensely popular amongst cricket players.
Indian Premier League was the first Franchise driven sport introduced by the BCCI wherein franchises made a mad rush to be part of one of the 8 Teams. With a well-developed domestic structure, it was a great platform for the domestic talent to be allowed to chase their goals at an international level platform.
The Evolution of the Indian Premier League| League History | Evolution and Impact
Indian Premier League history
How It Began
The IPL was introduced in 2008 with a clear intention of including international-level players to participate in the tournament. The Yearly tournament is played in the months of April, May June which is also the window wherein most cricket nations play their domestic season and hardly any internationals. This window helped the newly formed IPL to attract international players to be part of the new sporting event.
Indian Premier League history also shows that the league was ready to accept and adopt formats used by other successful franchise sports even outside of Cricket. IPL took inspirations from formats used in English Premier League, other football leagues, and also the NBA to make the sport commercially successful
Big Corporates were introduced to the sport as Tournament sponsors and team sponsors along with Media Sales to make the tournament a money spinner for all involved
Indian Premier League history – A competition lurked before the IPL was unveiled
As BCCI-backed IPL was being put in action at the drawing board, ZEE introduced a similar format, “Indian Cricket League” (ICL). It was an instant hit and put pressure on the BCCI to launch IPL at the earliest.
As Most of the Indian players were contracted with the BCCI, ICL lacked the glamour in the absence of current Indian stars in the tournament. The advantage for BCCI was they could gauge the smoothness of the ICL and bring in changes in the IPL to make it more attractive and commercially more viable.
Indian Premier League history – How BCCI Arm Twisted the Indian Cricket League
ICL was an unsanctioned private cricket league run by former cricketer Kapil Dev and the Zee Group. It was also dubbed as a “rebel league” by the Indian media and was threatening the dream Pet project of the BCCI – The IPL
To counter the threat of the ICL, BCCI increased the prize money in domestic Ranji Tournaments and made offers in IPL too lucrative to reject. They involved other cricket boards to persuade players from not participating in the ICL and forced State associations to disallow grounds for ICL. Kapil Dev was sacked from NCA
Eventually, bans were issued to all BCCI-contracted players participating in the ICL, warning of banning them in all BCCI-organised tournaments if they continued with the ICL.
When BCCI launched its own T20 tournament tournament – The IPL in April 2008, BCCI gave an offer to include ICL players in the IPL, if they immediately leave the ICL, which the players chose immediately. This caused the league to fold in 2009.
Indian Premier League history – Tournament Sponsors
DLF, a real estate firm was one of the main title sponsors of the tournament for a five-year sponsorship at a mind-boggling 50 million dollar deal. This was followed by Pepsi for 4 Billion Rupees for a 5-year contract.
Television rights for broadcasting the tournament went to Sony for a ten-year period which allowed the tournament to be viewed across the globe which helped in its global presence over the years.
Indian Premier League history –Season wise
8 Franchise was selected and the initial tournament played a double round-robin group stage format with one home and one away match against every team.
Two Semi-finals and finals followed
Indian Premier League History – 2008 Season
The Inaugural winner of the Indian Premier League was Rajasthan Royals who beat Chennai Super Kings at the DY Patil Stadium
Indian Premier League history – 2009 Season – A decision making it a Global Event
Due to General Elections in the country and the limited cricketing window available to accommodate foreign players, the Indian Premier League dates could not be shifted. This meant that the tournament had to be shifted to a foreign land.
The tournament was hosted in South Africa which became a huge success and the massive scale at which the entire tournament was shifted to a foreign country flawlessly made the entire world stand up and notice the Indian Premier League which made the global audience glued to the Television set. The tournament was appreciated for globalizing cricket and setting new records in television viewership
Indian Premier League history – 2009 Season Winner
IPL2 was won by Deccan Chargers while the Royal Challengers Bangalore was declared as runners-up.
Indian Premier League history – 2010 Season Winner
The tournament was won by the Chennai Super Kings, who defeated Mumbai Indians in the final, played in Mumbai.
Indian Premier League History – 2011 Season
After 3 successive years of the Indian Premier League, BCCI took the bold decision of introducing two more teams, Pune Warriors India and the Kochi Tuskers Kerala.
Indian Premier League history – 2011 Season Winner
The tournament was won by the Chennai Super Kings for the second successive season, defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore by 58 runs in the final
Indian Premier League history – Post-2011 Season
Kochi Tuskers Expelled: On 19 September 2011, then BCCI president N. Srinivasan announced that the franchise was being terminated because it had failed to provide the bank guarantee. On 14 October 2011, the IPL Governing Council announced that there will only be 9 teams for the 2012 IPL Season
Indian Premier League history – 2012 Season Winner
Kolkata Knight Riders were the winning team, beating defending champions Chennai Super Kings by five wickets in the final match at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.
Indian Premier League history – 2013 Season Winner
Mumbai Indians won the tournament for the first time, defeating Chennai Super Kings in the final by 23 runs.
Indian Premier League History – 2014 Season
IN 2014, IPL saw the exit of Pune Warriors India owned by Sahara Group Sports Ltd. After playing three seasons of the IPL, the team could not perform as expected and had to disband owing to financial disputes with the BCCI.
Due to General Elections in the country, the 2014 edition was jointly hosted by India and the UAE
Indian Premier League history – 2014 Season Winner
Kolkata Knight Riders won the tournament beating Kings XI Punjab by three wickets.
Indian Premier League history – 2015 Season Winner
Mumbai Indians won the match against Chennai Super Kings at Eden Gardens Stadium.
Indian Premier League History – 2016 Season
The Justice Lodha Committee announced the banning of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals from the Indian Premier League (IPL) for 2 years – 2016 and 2017, due to match-fixing and betting activities.
Indian Premier League history – 2016 Season Winner
SunRisers Hyderabad won the final match against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Indian Premier League history – 2017 Season Winner
Mumbai Indians won by 1 run against Rising Pune Supergiant in the final, winning their third title and making them the first team to achieve the milestone.
Indian Premier League History – 2018 Season
The league saw the return of the Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals.
Indian Premier League history – 2018 Season – Winner
Chennai Super Kings won by 8 wickets against Sun Risers Hyderabad in the final to win their third title.
Indian Premier League History – 2019 Season
Mumbai Indians defeated the Chennai Super Kings by 1 run to win the final for their fourth title.
Indian Premier League History – 2020 Season
Due to the covid pandemic, the tournament was moved to 15th April, unfortunately due to the lockdown extension the tournament was indefinitely suspended
UAE hosted the edition in September and even with all the logistical difficulties, the tournament was smoothly held. Vivo was replaced by Dream 11 as the title sponsor with a mind-boggling 222 crore bid.
Indian Premier League history – 2020 Season – Winner
Defending champions Mumbai Indians won the title against Delhi Capitals following a 5-wicket win
Indian Premier League history – 2021 Season – Winner
Chennai Super Kings won the match by 27 runs beating Kolkata Knight Riders, to win their fourth IPL title.
Indian Premier League History – 2022 Season
There were two new teams included in the existing 8 teams.
Gujarat Titans (GT) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) were the new entrants but to make the tournament competitive and to make it fair for the two new franchises, there was a major reshuffle of the team.
A mega auction was held wherein all players had to be put back into the auction pool. Franchises were allowed to retain only 4 players from their pool of players at a pre fixed rate which then gets adjusted from the overall purse of the Franchise for the auction
Franchises with weak teams till then saw it as an opportunity to rebuild their team from scratch.
Indian Premier League history – 2022 Season – Winner
Gujarat Titans won against Rajasthan Royals by 7 wickets
Indian Premier League history – 2023 Season – Winner
Chennai Super Kings Win by Five Wickets. CSK had to chase 171 runs in 15 overs in a rain-curtailed final.
Evolution and Impact
The Evolution of the tournament and its biggest success as compared to other Franchise league tournaments is that it has created fan bases in non-cricket playing countries.
Talks are on to host IPL in foreign countries to spread the sport on its popularity.
The tournament has its own share of drama and suspense like a good thriller and it starts with the much-awaited auction televised live and watched by many
The popularity of the Televised Auction
Like the tournament itself, IPL auction also has its fanbase and a series of preshows are held before the actual auction and is one of the most watched events in the IPL Cycle.
Impact of IPL
Indian Premier League is ‘India ka Tyohaar’ which means India’s Festival and it is difficult to explain the excitement of the 
tournament year after year where the fan base are built not on regional biases but on which team a favorite cricketer is playing for.
Year after Year the fan base has increased and families sit together in their living rooms supporting their teams making it a family event.
Cricket is a religion in India and if there is anything above Bollywood in entertainment it has to be the Indian Premier League
England players were reluctant to play in the IPL but over the years, England players are the first to put their names in the auction pool. Such is the IPL impact on the players
IPL comes amongst the most profitable leagues in the World. They are in the Same league as the English Premier League, Spanish Premier League, Bundesliga, and Major League Baseball.
The IPL brand value is estimated to be around $4.8 Billion. It contributes $300 Million to the GDP of the nation and is amongst the fast-growing franchise sport in the world.
Conclusion
The Evolution of the IPL in some way reflects the growth in the popularity of the sport in India
The IPL has seen its share of controversies from betting, match-fixing, and dismantling of franchise teams, but the popularity of the game has not been affected.
Indian Premier League is here to stay and it is just a matter of time before the league will be played more than once in the year
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