18 things that you must know about IPL

Indian Premier League has started with blasting performance from Knight Riders. Now the time has come, IPL is going to transform the world cricket. Even no one on this earth is talking about anything else, county cricket in England has become thing of the past. Long queues of fans are waiting outside the stadium to get an entry. This is going to be the historical event in the world of cricket. The world is watching what is happening in IPL. It has become the richest tournament in the history of world cricket. I have really a tough time whether to support Sachin’ Mumbai Indians or to support Saurabh’s Knight Riders. But most of my readers don’t know much about IPL. So it’s high time to point out 18 things that you must know about IPL.

1. Star cricketers from all over the world are playing in Indian Premier League.
2. It is a twenty20 cricket tournament.
3. A Canadian company has bought the rights of official website of IPL for $50 million.
4. 8 clubs are playing in Indian Premier League 2008. They are – Bangalore Royal Challengers, Chennai Super Kings, Deccan Chargers, Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals.
5. India’s Sony TV and World Sport Group from Singapore has bought the global broadcasting right of Indian Premier League for US$1.026 billion for ten years.
6. No English cricketer is playing in this tournament.
7. The icon players in IPL are- Sachin Tendulkar for Mumbai Indians, Sourav Ganguly for Kolkata Knight Riders, Yuvraj Singh for Kings XI Punjab, Virender Sehwag for Delhi DareDevils and Rahul Dravid for Bangalore Royal Challengers. The icon players will be paid 15% more than the next highest paid players in their respective teams.
8. Indian Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the highest paid player of Indian Premier League as he signed for Chennai Super Kings for $1,500,000.
9. There will be 59 matches.
10. DLF Universal, the real estate giant is the title sponsor of Indian Premier League (IPL) for five years. For this this company has paid $50 million.
11. Pepsi is official drink in this tournament. For this pepsi has paid $12.5 million.
12. Each of the 8 participating teams can include maximum of 8 foreign players.
13. From selling the club ownership, Indian Premier League (IPL) got US$723.59 million from the auction of the bidding.
14. For the first time bollywood stars are found so much involved in any cricket tournament.
15. The home grounds of the eight teams are- M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore for Bangalore Royal Challengers; Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh for Kings XI Punjab; Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi for Delhi Daredevils; Eden Gardens, Kolkata for Kolkata Knight Riders; Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur for Rajasthan Royals; MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai for Chennai Super Kings; Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad for Deccan Chargers. For Mumbai Indians there are two home grounds: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai and Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai.
16. Each team will play two matches with every other team, held at Home venue and Away venue. The league matches will be followed by two semi-finals and a final match.
17. Kingfisher Airlines is the IPL’s umpire partner with rights to advertise of umpire’s clothes and also sponsoring third umpire decisions for five years. The deal is worth US$ 26.5 million.
18. IPL is inspired from ICL and premier football league of England.