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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) launches its first Professional
venture in the form of Twenty20 league, which will be called ‘Indian Premier
League’ (IPL). With this announcement the Board has definitely called the shots
in reply to Zee group’s promoted Indian Cricket League (ICL). This new concept
was made public among the hot shots of World cricket at a press conference.
The launch has been attended by all the members of Test
playing nations including ICC President Ray Malli, Indian cricket stars Sachin
Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble and Skipper Rahul Dravid. New Zealand’s
Stephen Fleming along with Australia’s Glen Mcgrath and Shane Warne were also
present on the occasion. They have confirmed their association with the league.
According to the BCCI Vice President Lalit Modi the IPL will work in a
similar pattern to Britain’s English Premiership League where clubs will be the
franchisees of BCCI and players of the said clubs will be sold and purchased
like any professional club. BCCI has penned down a draft and format of the IPL.
Eight clubs will play in the IPL’s first season, starting in April 2008
next year, with a tournament among the clubs which will last for 44 days and all
the matches would be played on home and away basis. A total of 59 matches will
be played with 177 hours of entertainment with a Super Saturday in which both
the semi-finals and the final will be played on the very same day. The total
prize money for Indian Premier League will be $3 million.
Its final leg
will be called ‘Champions Twenty20 League’ and all the finalists from across the
World will play in this Champions League. The champion team in the Champions
Twenty20 league will get $5 million, highest ever for a cricket event.
The league will be run by separate Governing body which will
independently manage the affairs of the IPL, which comprises IS Bindra, Chirayu
Ameen, Arun Jaitly, Rajeev Shukla, MAK Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar Ravi Shastri and
Lalit Modi as their members. The integration of accounts of IPL will be done on
annual basis. There will be separate office for the IPL at the MCA’s newly
constructed Cricket House.
The Champions Twenty20 league is slated to be
played in the first week of October 2008. The aim of the league is to revitalize
domestic cricket. Apart from India, Six domestic teams from three nations have
confirmed their participation in the first Twenty20 League which included
Australia, England and South Africa.
All these things will be run under
the rules and regulations of BCCI. There are certain mandatory guidelines for
the franchisees to follow:
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Clubs (Franchisee) should have their home ground
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Each club can have a maximum pool of 16 players
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Clubs must have four Under-21 youth players in their Pool of 16
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Four players must belong to the territory where club was located or
instituted
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Each foreign player will be named ‘designated player’ and will be purchased
through open bidding among the clubs for their next season
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All the matches will be played under floodlights
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An Inter and Intra division should be played among the said clubs
Intra division matches would be played on weekends while inter
division matches will be played on weekdays. The clubs will be formed by the
BCCI and the franchisees have to pay the Board to form a club. There will be two
divisions for the franchisees namely South and North. All the franchisees will
be given territorial exclusivity so that nobody can interfere in their own area
regarding player’s registration etc. The last but not the least as all the
matches will be played under the rules and regulations of ICC.
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