Cricket Has Always Been Like A Religion For This Country.

Cricket has always been like a religion for this country. It is seen as more than just a game. The players are considered as demigods and literally worshipped. The Twenty20 format of cricket created history. After the Twenty20 format of cricket was introduced to the world, cricket has just been overflowing out of everyone's ears, its all about cricket. Indian Premier League's origin is quite interesting. It all started when Lalit Modi, the Vice President of the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) envisioned the Indian Premier League. It is created along the lines of club football in Europe, specifically the English Premier League. IPL has been launched in response to the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) launched by Zee Group. The DLF Indian Premier League is an amazing occurrence in whole of cricket history. The Indian Cricket Board approved it a few months back. It is seen as a very good opportunity as far as the entertainment industry is concerned. The format of Twenty20 cricket has emerged as a phenomenon after the Twenty20 World Cup was won by India and since then people have been totally immersed into it. There is no doubt where the Indian Premier League is headed, as far as viewership and profits for everyone associated with it is concerned

What is the Indian Premier League? The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) launched the Indian Premier League (IPL) on September 14, 2007. Based on the lines of the English Premier League (EPL) and the National Basketball League (NBA), the IPL is said to be the brainchild of BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi. The idea was first floated in 1996 but was shot down as the board felt it would go against the zonal system of domestic cricket. The project moved into top gear when the Zee group launched a rival Indian Cricket League on similar lines in April 2007. Who are the franchisees? The franchisees will own the eight teams in the fray. They can run them in their own styles, bring their own sponsors and even name the team according to their choice. They will even be free to list their teams on the stock exchange. How is it different from the football and hockey leagues in India? The IPL, in a way, is not very different in its format vis-a-vis the PHL or the I-League in football. It is, however, totally different in its concept as the teams have been offered to franchisees (individuals or corporates) through a bidding process that culminated on Thursday. The BCCI has already signed up 80 international players who will also be put for auction soon. When will the IPL matches be played and where? Under lights, on a home and away basis, in the cities that have formed the teams. The league opens on April 18 and will see 59 matches spread over 44 days What kind of money is involved in IPL?

The overall prize money will be US $5 million, with the winners taking home $2 million. The remaining will be up for grabs in different forms, like man of the match awards and cash prizes. By contrast, the winners of the 2007 ICC World Cup in the Caribbean took home $1 million; the Indian team that won the World Twenty20 got half of that. TV rights have already gone for over $1 billion. Franchisees have already committed close to US $723 million. Top players are expected to earn minimum 1-2 crores per season. What is already in place for IPL? With the league scheduled for April 2008, the IPL has so far sold the eight teams to corporate houses and signed leading players. Indian stars like Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly will be called “icon players” and can play only for their respective cities. They will be the highest paid players and will not be auctioned. The bidding will take place next month. Who owns the IPL TV rights? Sony Entertainment, a division of Japan’s Sony Corp, and the Asia-based World Sports Group (WSG) won the broadcast rights for ten years, worth more than a whopping US $1 billion. TV rights are worth $918 million, with $100 million set aside for promotion. Who will run the IPL? BCCI has formed an IPL council that comprises former BCCI president IS Bindra, vicepresidents Rajiv Shukla, Chirayu Amin, Lalit Modi and Arun Jaitley, and former cricketers Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri. While the BCCI officials are honorary members, Pataudi, Gavaskar and Shastri will be paid for their services. The IPL governing council will have a five-year term and will run, operate and manage the league independently of the BCCI. alit Kumar Modi, (born November 29, 1963, Delhi, India[1]) is an Indian cricket administrator and a businessman. He is the Chairman and Commissioner of Indian Premier League, Chairman of Champions League (since September 2008), Vice President of BCCI since 2005 and Vice President of Punjab Cricket Association[2]. He is also the President & Managing Director of Modi Enterprises and Executive Director of Godfrey Philips India.

Contents [hide] • • • • • • • • •

1 Early life 2 Awards and recognitions 3 Family Threat and Security 4 Power-struggles 5 Personal Life & Family 6 $975m ESPN deal 7 Other Deals 8 New Teams 9 See also

•

10 References

[edit] Early life Born in 1963 in Delhi, India, to a Marwari family, Lalit Kumar Modi studied at the prestigious St.Joseph's College, Nainital. He attended Duke University in the United States, graduating in 1986 with a degree in marketing.[3]

[edit] Awards and recognitions • • • • • • • • •

He was awarded "The Business Standard Award" for making BCCI the Most Innovative Company in India for the year 2008.[4] On Sep 25, 2008 he was awarded "Brand Builder of the Year" by Asia Brand Conference. On Sep 26, 2008 he was awarded by CNBC Awaaz "The Consumer Award for Transforming Cricket in India" On Oct 6, 2008 he was awarded by NDTV Profit "The Most Innovative Business Leader in India". On Oct 24, 2008 he was awarded by Frost & Sullivan Growth Excellence Awards For "Excellence in Innovation". On Nov 8, 2008 he was awarded the "Teacher's Achievement of the Year award. On Nov 12, 2008 he was awarded "Sports Business- Rushmans Award For Sports Event Innovation". On Jan 22, 2009 he was awarded "CNBC Business Leader" award. On Sep 26, 2009 he was awarded by India Leadership Conclave - For building Brand of The Year.

He was listed among India's 20 most powerful people by India Today magazine. He was included because the BCCI's revenues have increased sevenfold since he joined the board in 2005 and because "no one in cricket wants to be on his wrong side". He is known to be a cricket administrator![5] In the 2008 August issue of the leading sports magazine Sports Pro he is ranked number 17 in the Power List of global figures connected with sports. He is further hailed as the Best Rain Maker (money maker) for any sports body in the history of sports Globally. In the short time that he has been a sports administrator he has raised over four billion U.S. dollars for his organisation. All this he has done in an Honorary capacity. He has been described as the most powerful man in Cricket by Mike Atherton in his article in the Telegraph. Time Magazines July 2008, lists him no 16 in their listing of Best Sports Executives in the World for 2008. In the October 2008 issue of international Business magazine Business Week - Lalit Modi was voted no 19 in the list of 25 most powerful Global Sports figures. Lalit Modi also won the NDTV award for the Most Innovative Business Leader of India. In the Nov issue of India's Leading Business magazine Business Today put Modi on its cover and named him one of India's Best Marketers. On the 31st of Dec the annual SportzPower List 2008 ranked him No 1 and the DNA newspaper ranked him 17 on there list of 50 Most Influential people in India. Successfully organised IPL-2 in South Africa in 2009 with a three weeks notice only of having to move from India. In its Sep 2009 issue Forbes Magazine described the IPL as "The World's Hottest Sports League". This distinction is remarkable for a league that just began over a year and a half ago and all credit goes to the Master Mind Lalit Modi

[edit] Family Threat and Security Towards the end of March 2009 the Mumbai police were interrogating underworld don Chota Shakeel's arrested hit man Rashid Malabari and during the interrogation he had revealed that there were planning to assassinate cricket chief Lalit Modi, his wife Minal and son Ruchir. This was cross referenced by an government intelligence agency picked up a phone conversation between Chota Shakeel and his boss Dawood Ibrahim instructing him to hire 4 assassins to assassinate Modi and his family either in South Africa or in India. Also electronic surveillance records intercepted by Intelligence Bureau indicate that Chhota Shakeel has asked his shooters to target Modi in Mumbai or South Africa. "Usko khatam kar do India ya South Africa mein," is the diktat. The reason for this threat is that Modi banned Pakistani cricket players to take place in IPL 2. Lalit Modi has been provided with armed police men guarding his house whether or not he is at home, he has also been provided a non-category police security cover while he is out of the gates of his house which include multiple 24 hour armed cops and a government escort car following. But his wife Minal and Son Ruchir will only have 1 armed cop with them while they are out of their house. Modi also has his own personal security guarding his house 24 hours a day and has personal bodyguards who are employed by Modi himself guarding him, his wife and his son at all times. It is also known to be said that the IPL's security agency's have beefed up security around Modi at all times. Bob Nicholls co-owner of one of the IPL's security agency Nicholls and Styne has conformed that private security around Modi has been increased and tightened. He has also conformed that the Indian Government is providing high police protection around Modi even if he is out of India. It is also known that Lalit Modi's children, Ruchir and Aliya travel around with a convoy of 2-4 cars at a time, this has been noticed at the American School of Bombay in Bandra Kurla Complex. While Ruchir and Aliya enter or exit their school a team of 7 bodyguards which 2 of them are armed police officials, and 5 look like private bodyguards, 2 of them are huge men in black suits and the other 3 are in different clothing. It is known that Lalit Modi's Bungalow in Juhu has extremely high security. According to sources he has around 10-15 security personal roaming around his house 24 hours a day. Outside Modi's front gate there are around 2-3 private security personal scanning the area and questioning every by passer 24 hours a day. [6] [7] [8] [9]

[edit] Power-struggles In 2005, Modi figured in a power struggle that resulted in Sharad Pawar, an influential politician and national cabinet minister, ousting former Indian cricket supremo and International Cricket Council chief Jagmohan Dalmiya in Board of Control for Cricket in India elections.[citation needed]

[edit] Personal Life & Family Lalit Modi has a wife Minal, and 3 children Ruchir (15), Aliya (16) & Karima (Minal's daughter from her previous marriage). At many of the IPL games you see Modi with his son Ruchir who is usually supporting the Rajasthan Royals or the Kolkata Knight Riders if they are playing, but his wife Minal, daughters Aliya and Karima are never spotted with him at the games. His son Ruchir (15) currently lives in Mumbai and is studying at the American School of Bombay. He lives a very lavish, high profile life with his wife and son in the suburbs of Mumbai, Juhu in his beach house. In Mumbai they also own a flat down town in Worli. Lalit

and Minal became Proud Grand Parents when Karima delivered a baby girl Arya Burman on 23 May 2009. Karima is married to Gaurav Burman a scion of the Dabur Family from Delhi but lives in London. [10] [10][11]

][11][12][13]

[edit] $975m ESPN deal Economic Times quoted[14]:

“

Cricket economics has once again hit the roof. Sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has paid a staggering $975 million for exclusive global commercial rights for the Twenty20 Champions League for a 10-year period, starting with the inaugural tournament between October 8-23 this year (2009). The deal, which gives ESS rights for all T20 Champions League seasons until 2017, makes it the highest cricket tournament by value on a per game basis. Earlier this year, the World Sports Group-Sony Entertainment consortium had paid BCCI $918 million for 10-year global rights for the India Premier League (IPL). Apart from ESS, bids were received from Abu Dhabi Sports Club and Dubai International Capital (DIC). While the DIC bid was for $751.3 million, Abu Dhabi Sports Club’s bid, being a conditional one, was disqualified. ESS had bid $900 million for the deal and an additional $75 million for marketing. Twenty20 Champions League, modelled after the football champions league, would feature the best teams of the domestic Twenty20 tournaments in various countries. It is being jointly organised by the Indian, Australian and South African cricket boards. The inaugural league, with $6-million prize money, will feature eight teams — two each from India, Australia and South Africa and the champions from the England and Pakistan domestic leagues. The prize money will be shared between the teams and their players. “This deal will cement our relationship with BCCI, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa and we are committed to setting new benchmarks in broadcast and distribution,” ESS MD Manu Sawhney said in a statement. IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi said: “We believe this is the best commercial deal for Champions League.”

”

Many other news-sources also reported the deal, including Business Standard[15] and others[16] [17] .

[edit] Other Deals Since Modi's joining the BCCI he has successfully concluded the following deals for the BCCI :

• • • • • • • • • •

Team Sponsorship Deal for Team India with Sahara group for 4 years - 103 million dollars (415 Crores) on 20.12.05 Team Apparel Sponsor Deal for Team India with Nike for 4 year - 53 million dollars (215 Crores) on 24.12.05 Media Rights Deal with Nimbus for 4 years- 612 million dollars on 18.2.06 Media Rights for overseas matches with Zee for 4 years - 219 million dollars 0n 7.4.06 BCCI Sponsorship Deal with WSG - 46 million dollars (173 Crores) on 27.8.07 IPL Media Rights Deal with Sony - 1.26 Billion Dollars 0n 15.1.08 IPL Teams Sale with various parties -723.6 million Dollars on 25.01.08 Web Media Rights to Live current Media - 50 million dollars on 18.4.08 IPL Title sponsorship and Ground sponsors - 220 million dollars - mar-apr 2008 Renegotiated with Sony WSG the IPL Media rights from 1.26 Billion Dollars to 2 Billion Dollars on 25.3.2009

[edit] New Teams Modi announced on the 26th of Aug 2009 that he is going to auction two more Teams in the beginning of 2010 for a base price of anywhere ranging from 200-300 Million US dollars that is a 2 -3 fold increase over what he sold in early 2008. One will need to wait and watch if he can deliver those numbers. If we go by the past - We are sure he will also be successful here.

Global following In India, the IPL has become one of the most popular events of the year[20]. Around the world, reception has varied. In Pakistan the reception was described by Pakistani cricinfo editor Osman Samiuddin as "massive", suggesting that it attracted even non-regular cricket followers and that the popularity of the Kolkata Knight Riders was great.[21] GEO Super telecasted the matches and also included a popular show called Inside IPL. However, reception for the second edition was lukewarm. A similar positive reaction was seen in Sri Lanka, with interest in the Mumbai Indians being large due to the presence of cricket hero Sanath Jayasuriya. Bangladesh has also positively reacted despite only one Bangladeshi player being involved. The Knight Riders were the most popular team. These subcontinental countries were also helped in that the time-slot of the matches fitted in with prime time in these nations. South Africa has seen moderate viewership of the IPL, however, many were unable to relate to any of the teams, although a large number simply supported Mumbai Indians because of the presence of Shaun Pollock. The IPL did not overcome the power of Premier League Football in England, plus the country's governing body did not allow many English players to take part. The IPL was very popular with the Asian Population. In the West Indies, the IPL became so popular that it, according to Vaneisa Baksh, threatened to overtake test cricket completely in 'certain sections of West Indian fans'. While free-to-air coverage has not been complete and it has not ignited passions, it has remained a popular watch.

The IPL was less popular in Australia and New Zealand, mainly due to the time zone differences. Nevertheless, the IPL consistently won its free-to-air timeslot of 8:30 P.M. and 12:30 A.M. Australian Time, and 10:30 P.M. and 2:30 A.M. New Zealand Time for subscription TV. Snap polls indicate that more than 24 million people watched the telecast of the gripping IPL 2008 finals (Rajasthan Royals v Chennai Super Kings),more than 20 million people saw the Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Daredevils match, whereas the second semi-final between Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab attracted an audience of 19 million. [22]

[edit] Rules This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (April 2009)

The official rules for the tournament are here. There are five ways that a franchise can acquire a player. In the annual auction, buying domestic players, signing uncapped players through trading and buying replacements.[23][24] In the trading window the player can only be traded with his consent. The franchise will have to pay the difference between the old contract price and the new contract price. If the new contract is worth more than the older one then the difference will be shared between the player and the franchise selling the player.[25] Some of the Team composition rules are: • •

• •

Minimum squad strength of 16 players plus one physio and a coach. No more than 8 foreign players in the squad and at most 4 in the playing XI.For the 2009 edition franchises are allowed 10 foreign players in the squad. The number allowed in the playing XI remains unchanged at 4. A minimum of 8 local players must be included in each team. A minimum of 2 players from the BCCI under-22 pool in each team.

The players accorded "icon" status are: Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag. The total spending cap for a franchisee in the first player auction was US $5m. Under-22 players are to be remunerated with a minimum annual salary of US $20,000 while for others it is US $50,000. Icon players are to be paid 15% more than the highest paid player in their respective teams.

[edit] Official website The IPL negotiated a contract with the Canadian company Live Current Media Inc. to run and operate its portals and the minimum guarantee has been negotiated at US $50 million over the next 10 years.[26] The official website of the tournament is www.iplt20.com.

[edit] Statistics and records Main article: List of statistics and records of Indian Premier League

[edit] List of hat tricks Hattrick Taker

No.

Season

Date

1

2008 Indian Premier League

10th May 2008

Irfan Pathan, Chennai Lakshmipat Piyush Kings XI Super hy Balaji Chawla, VRV Punjab Kings Singh

1

2

2008 Indian Premier League

15th May 2008

Dwaraka Ravi Teja, RP Delhi Deccan Amit Mishra Singh, Daredevil Chargers Pragyan s Ojha

1

3

2008 Indian Premier League

Victims

Sourav Ganguly, Debabrata Das, David Hussey

18th May 2008

Makhaya Ntini

4

2009 Indian Premier League

1st May 2009

Robin Uthappa, Mark Yuvraj Singh Boucher, Jacques Kallis

5

2009 Indian Premier League

6th May 2009

6

2009 Indian Premier League

17th May 2009

For

Against

Team's Hattric k total

Chennai Kolkata Super Knight Kings Riders

Kings XI Punjab

2

Royal Challenger 1 s Bangalore

Rohit Sharma

Abhishek Nayar, Harbhajan Singh, JP Duminy

Deccan Mumbai Chargers Indians

1

Yuvraj Singh(2nd Hattrick)

Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds, Venugopal Rao

Kings XI Punjab

2

Deccan Chargers

[edit] Revenue and profits The Indian Government earned Rs 91 crore as tax revenue from the 1st season of the IPL. [27]

[edit] Franchise earnings The first season that concluded on 1 June 2008 was a huge success for the IPL. It should be noted that during the first season no one had expected the franchises to break even since most of them had paid huge amounts to buy the clubs, but the table below shows that some of them are already profitable from Season 1.[28]

Franchise

Revenues

a. Broadcasting Rights - 35 Mumbai Indians

b. Team Sponsors 20 c. Gate Receipts - 14 Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 69

a. Broadcasting Rights - 35 Royal Challengers Bangalore

b. Team Sponsors 0 c. Gate Receipts - 10 Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 45

Deccan Chargers

Expenses

Profit/L oss (Rupees Crores)

a. Franchise Fees 45 b. Team Expenses Net 20 Loss -16 c. Advertising & Admin - 20 Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 85

a. Franchise Fees 48 b. Team Expenses Net 22 Loss c. Advertising/Admin -43 - 18 Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 88

a. Broadcasting Rights - 35

a. Franchise Fees 45

b. Team Sponsors 17 ;

b. Team Expenses 24

c. Gate Receipts - 12

c. Advertising/Admin

Net Loss -18

Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 64

Chennai Super Kings

Delhi Daredevils

a. Franchise Fees 36

b. Team Sponsors 25

b. Team Expenses Net 24 Loss c. Advertising/Admin -0.2

c. Gate Receipts 12.8

- 13

Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 72.8

Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 73

a. Broadcasting Rights - 35

a. Franchise Fees 34

b. Team Sponsors 20

b. Team Expenses Net 23 Loss c. Advertising/Admin -6.6

c. Gate Receipts 15.4

a. Broadcasting Rights - 35 b. Team Sponsors 22 c. Gate Receipts - 9 Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 66 Kolkata Knight Riders

Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 82

a. Broadcasting Rights - 35

Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 70.4

Kings XI Punjab

- 13

- 20 Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 77

a. Franchise Fees 30.4 b. Team Expenses Net 25 Loss c. Advertising/Admin -2.4 - 13 Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 68.4 Net Profit -

a. Broadcasting Rights - 35 b. Team Sponsors 34 c. Gate Receipts - 20 Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 89

a. Broadcasting Rights - 35 Rajasthan Royals

b. Team Sponsors 16 c. Gate Receipts - 8 Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 59

•

a. Franchise Fees 31 b. Team Expenses 25 c. Advertising/Admin +13 - 20 Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 76

a. Franchise Fees 27 b. Team Expenses Net 13 Profit c. Advertising/Admin +6 - 13 Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 53

All Figures are in Indian Rupees crores (1 crore = 10,000,000 Rupees = 201,176 United States Dollars = 152,444 Euro on June 1, 2008 [29])

[edit] Controversies The BCCI had found itself in the middle of many conflicts with various cricket boards around the world as a result of the IPL. The main point of contention was that signed players should always be available to their country for international tours, even if it overlaps with the IPL season. To address this, the BCCI officially requested that the ICC institute a time period in the International Future Tours Program solely for the IPL season. This request was not granted at a subsequent meeting held by the ICC. [30]

[edit] Conflicts with the England and Wales Cricket Board Because the inaugural IPL season coincided with the County Championship season as well as New Zealand's tour of England, the ECB and county cricket clubs raised their concerns to the BCCI over players. The ECB made it abundantly clear that they would not sign No Objection Certificates for players—a prerequisite for playing in the IPL. Chairmen of the county clubs also made it clear that players contracted to them were required to fulfill their commitment to their county. As a result of this, Dimitri Mascarenhas was the only English player to have signed with the IPL for the 2008 season.[31]

A result of the ECB’s concerns about players joining the IPL, was a proposed radical response of creating their own Twenty20 tournament that would be similar in structure to the IPL. The league — titled the English Premier League — would feature 21 teams in three groups of seven and would occur towards the end of the summer season. [32] The ECB enlisted the aid of Texas billionaire Allen Stanford to launch the proposed league.[33] Stanford was the brains behind the successful Stanford 20/20, a tournament that has run twice in the West Indies. On 17 February 2009, when news of the fraud investigation against Stanford became public, the ECB and WICB withdrew from talks with Stanford on sponsorship.[34][35] On February 20 the ECB announced it has severed its ties with Stanford and cancelled all contracts with him.[36]

[edit] Conflicts with Cricket Australia The BCCI also experienced run-ins with Cricket Australia (CA) over player availability for Australia’s tour of the West Indies and CA’s desire for global protection of their sponsors. CA had feared that sponsors of the IPL (and its teams) that directly competed with their sponsors would jeopardize already existing arrangements. This issue was eventually resolved [37] and it was also agreed upon that Australian players would be fully available for the West Indies tour.

[edit] Conflicts with the Pakistan Cricket Board Many players from the Pakistan Cricket Team who were not offered renewed central contracts (or decided to reject new contracts) decided to join the rival Indian Cricket League (ICL). Two such players—Naved-ul-Hasan and Mushtaq Ahmed also held contracts with English Counties. The PCB decided to issue No Objection Certificates for these players to play with their county teams on the basis that since they were no longer contracted to the PCB, there was no point in not granting them their NOCs. The latter did not sit well with the BCCI, as it went against the hard line stance they had taken on players who joined the ICL. After the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the Pakistan government deemed it unsafe for its players to travel to India for the IPL. However, when the IPL was shifted to South Africa, the Pakistani players requested the IPL organizers and Lalit Modi to allow them to play but they refused by reasoning that the squads had already been decided and there was no room for Pakistani players. However, after Pakistan's victory in the 2nd ICC World T20, many IPL franchises have wished to have their Pakistani players back.

[edit] Conflicts with other Boards Smaller boards like the WICB and NZCB have raised concerns over the impact the IPL will have on their player development and already fragile financial situation. Since players from smaller cricketing nations are not compensated as much, they have more motivation to join the IPL.

[edit] Media restrictions Initially the IPL enforced strict guidelines to media covering Premier League matches, consistent with their desire to use the same model sports leagues in North America use in regards to media coverage. Notable guidelines imposed included the restriction to use images taken during the event unless purchased from cricket.com, owned by Live Current Media Inc

(who won the rights to such images) and the prohibition of live coverage from the cricket grounds. Media agencies also had to agree to upload all images taken at IPL matches to the official website. This was deemed unacceptable by print media around the world. Upon the threat of boycott, the IPL eased up on several of the restrictions.[38] On 15 April 2008 a revised set of guidelines offering major concessions to the print media and agencies was issued by the IPL and accepted by the Indian Newspaper Society.[39] Even with the amended restrictions, specialist cricket websites such as cricinfo and cricket365 continued to be banned from providing live coverage from the grounds and from purchasing match images from press agencies. As a result, on 18 April several major international agencies including Reuters and AFP announced their decision to provide no coverage of the IPL.[40]

[edit] Conflict with Cricket Club of India As per IPL rules, the winner of the previous competition decides the venue for the finals.[41] In 2009, the reigning Champions, Rajasthan Royals chose the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.[41] However, a dispute regarding use of the pavilion meant that no IPL matches could be held there. The members of the Cricket Club of India that owns the stadium have the sole right to the pavilion on match days, whereas the IPL required the pavilion for its sponsors.[42] The members were offered free seats in the stands, however the club rejected the offer, stating that members could not be moved out of the pavilion. [41][43][44]