Indian Premier League (IPL)

The BCCI launched the Indian Premier League (IPL) on the lines of football’s English Premier League and the National Basketball League (NBA) of the US.
The IPL is a professional Twenty20 cricket league created and promoted by the BCCI and backed by the ICC. The Twenty20 league is set to debut in April 2008, with eight teams comprising a minimum of 16 players each. The league will last for 44 days and will involve 59 matches.
The IPL works on a franchise-system based on the American style of hiring players and transfers. These franchises were put for auction, where the highest bidder won the rights to own the team, representing each city.
The auction for the same took place on January 24, 2008 and the total base price for the auction was $400 million. The auction went on to fetch $723.59 million.
The Mumbai franchise owned by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) was the most expensive franchise - fetching $111.9 million closely followed by Vijay Mallya’s United Breweries which paid $111.6 million for the Bangalore franchise .
Media house Deccan Chronicle won the Hyderabad chapter of the IPL for $107 million, while India Cements’ Chennai franchise cost $91 million.
Bollywood also made its presence felt with two of its leading stars bagging the ownership of their respective teams - Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla’s Red Chillies Entertainment buying out Kolkata for $75.09, while Preity Zinta and her beau Ness Wadia bought the Mohali team for $76 million.
GMR , the infrastructure development group which who are involved in a project for revamping the Delhi airport, bagged the ownership of the Delhi team for $84 million and the Emerging Media , consisting of its CEO Fraser Castellino, Manoj Badale and Lachlan Murdoch and other investors won the rights for the Jaipur franczhise for $67 million.


The grand finale of the first Indian Premier League(IPL) between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai SuperKings turned out to be an absolute nail-biter. In a last ball humdinger finish at DY Patil Stadium, Rajasthan Royals emerged winners by overcoming tough fight by Superkings. The victory materialized on account of good team work and exceptional all round performance by Yusuf Pathan.
Batting first Chennai Superkings made a cautious start scoring at 6-7 runs per over. When it was the time to press the accelerator for Chennai, Shane Warne introduced Yusuf Pathan and he answered the captain’s call by taking 3 wickets. Later with some big shots and handy contribution from skipper Dhoni, Chennai managed to reach a competitive score of 163.
Chasing 164 to win Rajasthan didn’t got off to a good start and lost 3 wickets with less than 50 runs on board. Then, Watson and Yusuf stabilized the innings keeping the target at a striking distance. When Murali came on to bowl Yusuf tried to cut loose. He got a life initially when Suresh Raina dropped a difficult catch. Making most of his good-fortune, he struck two sixes by executing his trademark shot. Just when the victory was looking obvious for Rajasthan, Chennai striked back with 3 quick wickets, which included a brilliant direct-hit run-out of Yusuf Pathan by Suresh Raina.
Shane Warne and Sohail Tanveer kept themselves cool and dealt with the remaining runs in singles and doubles. Finally it came down to 1 run required of final ball ! Facing the decider ball, Tanveer pierced the packed infield to score the winning run. Finally, the best and consistent team won the championship.
From Chennai’s perspective, the team had put cent percent effort, ignoring a few errors in batting, bowling and fielding. They made Rajasthan to earn their victory. In the end, it was nice to see the Superkings team in a huddle and getting addressed by Dhoni. A very rare behaviour from the losing finalist.
The match was followed by presentation ceremony in which aparts from winners trophy a lot of awards were given away.Under-19 successful player: Shreevats Goswami(Royal Challengers)Orange Cap: Shaun MarshPurple Cap: Sohail TanveerFair Play Award: Chennai SuperKingsMan of the Series: Shaun Watson (for all round peformance, 472 runs, 17 wickets)