Facts of Indian Premier League ( IPL )

What is the Indian Premier League?
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a franchise-based Twenty20 competition organised by the BCCI, and it has official sanction since it has the backing of the ICC. It features the world's best cricketers playing - their affiliation decided by open auction - for eight city-based franchises, owned by a host of businessmen and celebrity consortiums. The inaugural edition of the tournament will run from April 18 to June 1.

What are the logistics of the IPL?
The tournament will begin on April 18, when the Bangalore Royal Challengers take on Kolkata Knight Riders at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. The tournament will feature 59 matches in total, the teams playing each other on a home-and-away basis.

Why is the IPL generating such a buzz?
Two main reasons why. One the football-club concept of the IPL, which is unlike anything cricket has known. The best players from across the world playing not according to nationality but according to market forces. Second, the sheer financial scale of the IPL is unprecedented at this level of cricket. The BCCI has already made close to US$ 1.75 billion solely from the sale of TV rights ($908 million), promotion ($108 million) and franchises (approximately $700 million). Players are expected to earn close to US$1 million for a three-year contract. It's an entire cricket economy out there.

Who are the top cricketers involved?
The IPL has the top current players who will feature in its inaugural tournament, with the likes Mahendra Siggh Dhoni, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Shoaib Akhtar, Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Yuvraj Singh, and Matthew Hayden participating. England will have only one representative in Dimitri Mascarenhas because the IPL will clash with their domestic season, while Australia's Michael Clarke has opted to focus on his regular cricket.

Who are the franchise owners - celebrities and others?
Mukesh Ambani, the Reliance Industries chairman, acquired the Mumbai franchise for $111.9 million over a 10-year period; beer and airline baron Vijay Mallya, who also owns a Formula 1 team, won the Bangalore franchise for $111.6 million; Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment won the Kolkata franchise for $75 million; the biggest surprise was the Chandigarh franchise, which went to Preity Zinta, another Bollywood star, and Ness Wadia, together with two other industrialists, for $75 million. The winning team will get richer by $3 million if they win the first edition of the tournament.

How are the players paired with teams?
The BCCI conducted a player auction on February 20, in which the respective franchises bid for a maximum of eight international players from pool of 89 players who had been contracted to the board. But Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, and Yuvraj Singh were not up for auction as they had been given 'iconic' status by the BCCI - which means that they had to represent the city in which they are based. Another exception to the bidding process was with regard to the Australian players - a clause in the rules of Cricket Australia meant that each team could select a maximum of two Australians.

Who were the top draws at the IPL's player auction on February 20?
India's ODI captain Dhoni and Australia allrounder Andrew Symonds were the big buys at the auction in Mumbai, with the Chennai franchise buying Dhoni for US$1.5 million and Hyderabad bidding successfully for Symonds at US$1.3 million. India's young stars Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma and Manoj Tiwary together fetched nearly US$3 million. But Australian legends Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath were not so lucky as Jaipur bagged the legspinner for US$450,000 and Delhi took home McGrath for his base price of US$350,000.

What about the second auction on March 11?
The IPL conducted a second auction on March 11 for an additional list of 28 players [including 14 from India's Under-19 players - bought on the basis of a draft system] who had signed on with them after the first round of auctions were completed. But the franchises who had spent the least in the first auction were in a better position to buy as the major buyers from the first auction had almost reached their spending cap of $5 million. The most expensive player on the day was James Hopes, the Australian allrounder, who was purchased by Mohali for $300,000. Jaipur, the lowest spenders in the first auction, snapped up Dimitri Mascarenhas, Shane Watson, Morne Morkel and Sohail Tanvir for a total of $385,000. The biggest name traded on the day was Misbah-ul-Haq, who was signed by the Bangalore franchise for $150,000.

What will be the team names?
As of March 12, six of the eight franchises have announced their teams names and unveiled their jerseys and logos: Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Bangalore Royal Challengers and Mumbai Indians. The Hyderabad and Mohali franchises are yet to announce their team names.

When do the teams have to announce their line-ups for the first edition of the IPL?
The BCCI has set March 18 as the deadline for the eight teams to announce their final line-ups for the inaugural edition of the IPL.

Who will coach the eight IPL teams?
The IPL has lured some of the top names in the business with three Australians, one South African and one New Zealander signing up as coaches. Kolkata roped in former Australia coach John Buchanan and Mohali signed up former Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody, while Delhi recruited Victoria coach Greg Shipperd. Former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe was the big surprise for Bangalore before Chennai announced that they had bagged former South Africa captain Kepler Wessels as coach. India's fielding coach Robin Singh will coach Hyderabad and Jaipur named Shane Warne as their captain and coach while Mumbai are yet to reveal their cards.

Whose idea is the IPL?
The IPL is the brainchild of Lalit Modi, the vice-president of the BCCI, and is modeled along the lines of club football in Europe, specifically the English Premier League. Though there is a school of thought that the idea came about in the 1990s, the announcement that such a tournament would happen, and which it would be a precursor to Twenty20 Champions League, cricket's version of the European Champions League, came only after Subhash Chandra, the owner of Zee Televison said, in April last year, that he was intending to start an unofficial league called the Indian Cricket League, fuelling speculation that is was a reactive idea rather than a proactive one.

How different are the IPL and ICL to each other?
The IPL is an official sanctioned Twenty20 tournament, and unlike the ICL, which is not recognised by any of the national boards or the ICC, it will have a better status, international reach, players, and the requisite infrastructure by default. Since the IPL is sanctioned by the ICC, players don't have the danger of bringing their international/first-class careers to a halt - as is the case with the ICL - whose players have been banned by the various boards. Another major difference is with regard to franchises - the ownership of the team rests with the individual owners and not one single entity.