November 7th, 2007 
Deepak INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE ON September 13, BCCI announced the birth of IPL, a multi- million dollar Twenty 20 league. With total prize money of three million dollars the BCCI, vice president Lalit Modi, the man responsible for this venture said that it is to revitalize and raise the profile of domestic cricket. Although it a show of strength that could browbeat any rival initiative like ICL IPL, a baby of world’s richest cricket controlling body BCCI, attracted many former and playing legends of the game. Adding a touch of glamour and celebrity value to the event was the presence of India stars Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble and Australian pace legend Glenn McGrath and former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming. Retired Australian spin wizard Shane Warne confirmed his joining of the IPL in a video conference from London, saying he was excited and looking forward to coming to India for the League. The IPL will be an eight-team league based on metropolitan cities though the exact cities and the venues of the competition were yet to be finalised. It will be structured on ”franchise model” like the English Premier League. Franchisees will own clubs/teams by paying a fee to the franchisor, which is the BCCI. The franchisees will bid for players but Modi later said a player may not join a highest bidder but join a team of his choice. Niranjan Shah ”There will be 16 players in each team which may have two to three foreign players, at least four under 21 players and a minimum four cricketers from the catchment area,” Modi said in his presentation. The eight teams will be divided into two divisions and they will play on a home and away basis with the other seven teams making the total number of matches to 59 to be played in 44 days. The International League which is slated to be held in October next year, initially among eight teams — winners and runners-up team from India, Australia, South Africa and England — will have two divisions of four each. Fifteen matches –12 group league matches, two semi-finals and a final — will be played in nine days. The winners of the international league will get a whopping two million dollar while the runners-up will pocket one million. The two losing semi-finalists will be richer by five lakh dollars each while the remaining [...]
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