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.

Amit Singh Kanyal