IPL 2019: Teams, History & Winners

March 23rd marks the commencement day of the 12th season of the Indian Premier League popularly known as IPL. The 8 teams representing 8 states of India will be battling their way to the ultimate glory, the IPL Trophy. There is not a child or adult left in the country who has not gone crazy for this humongous extravaganza in the name of IPL. The teams, CSK (Chennai Super Kings), RCB (Royal Challengers Bangalore), RR (Rajasthan Royals), KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders), MI (Mumbai Indians), DC (Delhi Capitals), KXIP (Kings 11 Punjab) & Sunrisers Hyderabad are all set with their best team in line to set the pitch on fire.

But where did it all start? What led to this supreme fandom of IPL? What are the basic deets of the game? Well, let’s get to the answer of all these questions in detail.

The Indian Premier League was founded in the year 2007, 13th September 2017 to be precise, by BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) with Lalit Modi being the father of the same. It was he who was the founder and former commissioner of the Indian Premier League. The T-20 Cricket Competition was brought to surface with an illustrious event in New Delhi. It was stated that IPL would be run by seven-man governing council comprising of former Indian Cricket Players and BCCI Officials and the top two teams will thus qualify for the Champions League. Post the announcement an auction ceremony was held on 24th January 2008 with the base price of $400 million to form the 8 teams. As the event was given so much limelight, it sure caught the attention of all the cricket lovers from the country. The basic idea, according to Lalit Modi and BCCI, to launch IPL was to instill faith of Indians in the most celebrated game of the country: Cricket.

The rest has been history. The game gained so much popularity in such a short span of time that the amount of auction as well as the expansion of team was sky rocketed within the second season itself. Today, IPL has established itself as the World’s biggest domestic Cricket League. The Format of IPL is quite simple. Each team plays each other in home-and-away round-robin format in league phase. When the league phase concludes, the top 4 teams play the playoffs. The top two team from the league phase then play together and the winner goes straight to IPL finals while the loser get the second chance to qualify for the final by playing against the winning team from 3rd & 4th place. The final two team battle their way on the pitch to win the IPL trophy and crown as the tournament champion. 

But IPL has seen its downfall as well. In 2013, IPL was under scandal of spot-fixing and three cricketers namely Sreesanth, Ajit Chandela & Ankeet Chavan were arrested by Mumbai Police. CSK team was the supreme highlight of the scandal as the manager of the team was accused to be working with the bookies. In the light of the same, CSK was banned from playing the IPL. But the sun did set on the scandal, and the vandalism the team suffered was masked completely when CSK made a comeback in 2018 IPL. The team reinstated its former glory not only by playing like heroes but also won the title for the season. 

Now that we have acquainted you with the basic neets and deets about this game, it will not be wise to leave the stats of the tournament at bay.

Let’s have a look at the champions for IPL since the time of its inception.