Indian Premier League

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league that was established in 2008 in India and has developed into one of the richest sports leagues in the world. The brainchild of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), it sees 10 teams compete in a double round-robin group and knockout format each season. Such has been the IPL’s success that the BCCI announced a new league for women’s cricket, the Women’s Premier League (WPL), which played its inaugural season in March 2023.

The advent of the IPL brought unprecedented levels of commercial investment and global attention to the sport. During the league’s first auction, held in Mumbai in January 2008, various bidders—including major companies, Bollywood film stars, and media moguls—vied for ownership of the franchises. The franchise auction generated $723.59 million, nearly double the collective base price of $400 million the organizers set for the eight franchises. The Mumbai franchise was the most expensive, with a winning bid of $111.9 million.

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Teams

The eight founding franchises were the Mumbai Indians (MI), the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB; renamed the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2024), the Deccan Chargers (DCH), the Delhi Daredevils (DC; renamed the Delhi Capitals in 2019), the Kings XI Punjab (PBKS; rebranded as the Punjab Kings in 2021), the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), and the Rajasthan Royals (RR).

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In late 2010 RR and PBKS were temporarily removed from the league by the BCCI for breaches of ownership policy but were reinstated in time for the 2011 tournament. Two new franchises, the Pune Warriors India (PWI) and the Kochi Tuskers Kerala (KTK), joined the IPL for the 2011 tournament. The Kochi club played for just one year before the BCCI terminated its contract. The Deccan Chargers’ franchise was terminated as well in 2012 and was replaced by the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) from the 2013 IPL onward. PWI withdrew from the league in 2013 over financial disputes. In 2015 CSK and RR were handed two-season suspensions after a spot-fixing and betting scandal. They were replaced by the Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS; later Rising Pune Supergiant) and the Gujarat Lions (GL; based in the city of Rajkot) teams for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. The two franchises exited the league once RR and CSK returned for the 2018 edition. In 2022 the IPL roster was increased to 10 teams once again with the addition of the Gujarat Titans (GT) and the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).

Format

Initially each team played against all the other teams in the league twice during a season, but, with the expansion to 10 clubs in 2011, a double round-robin format was introduced. The tournament returned to the original league format after the Kochi franchise was terminated ahead of IPL 2012. Since 2022 with the participating teams numbering 10 once again, the IPL has reintroduced the double round-robin format. In this format the teams are ranked according to the number of IPL title victories and playoff qualifications. They are divided into two virtual groups: Group A, comprising the teams ranked first, third, fifth, seventh, and ninth; and Group B, consisting of the teams ranked second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and tenth.

During the season, each team plays against the other four teams in its group twice, the team with the corresponding rank in the other group twice, and each of the remaining four teams once. Each team faces a different combination of nine competitors in a season, playing a total of 14 matches (twice against five teams and once against the remaining four).

Teams get two points for a win, one point for a no-result or tie, and no points for a loss. The teams are ranked on a points table, with their net run rate (NRR) used as a tiebreaker if required. The top four teams at the end of the group stage qualify for the playoffs.

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The playoffs comprise a three-match knockout format before the final. The top two teams in the table face off in the Qualifier 1 match, with the winner advancing directly to the final. The third- and fourth-placed teams play in the Eliminator match, with the winner then facing off against the loser of Qualifier 1 in the Qualifier 2 match to earn the second place in the final.

IPL’s growth story

The first IPL tournament, held over 44 days in 2008, was won by the Rajasthan Royals, one of the smaller-market franchises, captained by Shane Warne, the great Australian bowler. According to a Forbes report in 2022, the average value of the IPL franchises shows an annualized growth rate of 24 percent, up from $67 million in 2009 (of 8 teams) to $1.04 billion in 2022 (of 10 teams). This growth in average team value, when compared with the past 13 years’ growth rate of 10 percent for National Football League (NFL) team values and 16 percent for National Basketball Association team values, is remarkable. Expectations about the 2023–27 media contract contributed to the team value in 2022.

For the five-year cycle starting in 2023, streaming and TV rights were sold for a record total of $6 billion to Viacom18 and Star India (owned by Disney). This is more than double the amount at which media rights were sold for the previous cycle. In the wake of the IPL’s success, other cricketing countries scrambled to grab some of the riches by forming their own domestic T20 leagues. Major League Cricket (MLC), a U.S. T20 cricket league launched in 2023, also has its IPL connections: four of its six franchises have investments from IPL franchise owners, and many IPL cricketers feature in MLC.

In March 2026 RR and RCB found new owners ahead of the 19th edition of the IPL. A U.S.-led consortium acquired 100 percent of RR’s franchise rights for $1.63 billion; RCB was bought by a group of Indian and overseas businesses for $1.78 billion.

Women’s Premier League

In February 2022 Sourav Ganguly, the BCCI President at the time, revealed that the sports body was planning to launch a professional women’s cricket league in India. In January 2023 then-BCCI Secretary Jay Shah confirmed that the new women’s cricket competition would be officially named the Women’s Premier League. The inaugural edition of the tournament was played in March 2023 and featured five franchise teams: the Delhi Capitals (DC), the Gujarat Giants (GG), the Mumbai Indians (MI), the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), and the UP Warriorz (UPW).

Each of the five teams initially play the other four twice in a double round-robin league format similar to that of the IPL. After all teams have played eight matches each, the top three qualify for the knockout stage, with the team placed first in the table advancing directly to the final. The teams in second and third place play a virtual semi-final, with the winner advancing to the final. MI beat DC in the final of the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2023. DC advanced to the finals of the WPL in the next three seasons, only to lose to RCB (2024, 2026) and MI (2025).

Controversies

The IPL has seen multiple controversial moments during its history so far. Some prominent incidents include:

• In 2010 the BCCI terminated the Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab franchises for alleged violations in ownership and shareholding structures. Both teams challenged the decision in court and were reinstated in time for the 2011 IPL season.
• In 2010 a consortium led by Rendezvous Sports World successfully bid for the Kochi IPL franchise, with Indian National Congress politician Shashi Tharoor, who was the minister of state for external affairs at the time, playing a key role in facilitating the bid. IPL commissioner Lalit Modi revealed that Sunanda Pushkar, who married Tharoor in August 2010, held sweat equity in the team, alleging that this was a hidden financial benefit meant for Tharoor. Amid accusations of impropriety and conflict of interest, Pushkar relinquished her stake, and Tharoor resigned as minister in April 2010.
• In 2010 Modi was suspended following allegations of financial irregularities, misconduct, and abuse of power. Following an investigation, a BCCI committee found him guilty of multiple violations, including threatening Kochi officials and favoring certain bidders, leading to a lifetime ban for Modi from any official role in Indian cricket in 2013.
• Delhi Police arrested IPL cricketers Ajit Chandila, Ankeet Chavan, and S. Sreesanth for alleged involvement in fixing matches during the 2013 IPL, leading to lifetime bans by the BCCI, which were later reduced to seven-year suspensions. The BCCI also imposed lifetime bans on Rajasthan Royals co-owner Raj Kundra and Chennai Super Kings team principal Gurunath Meiyappan, the son-in-law of N. Srinivasan, the BCCI president at the time, for illegal betting and leaking team information to bookies. They have been barred from taking part in any professional or commercial cricketing activity or events.
• In July 2015 the Supreme Court-appointed R.M. Lodha Committee suspended the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for two years over the 2013 betting scandal. The Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiant were temporarily added to maintain an eight-team league during their absence.
• The BCCI and IPL were criticized for holding the 2021 edition of the IPL despite a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The tournament was suspended with more than half of the matches yet to be played because of rising COVID cases among multiple teams in May 2021. The remaining matches were rescheduled and played in the United Arab Emirates in September–October 2021.
• On May 9, 2025, the IPL was temporarily suspended because of the India-Pakistan border tensions following military operations by both countries. Foreign players were evacuated and given the option of returning to their home countries. After a ceasefire was announced, the league resumed on May 17 and was completed by early June 2025.

Championship results

Results of the IPL and WPL championships are provided in the tables.