In one of the latest news from the Indian Premier League arena, Dr. Vijay Mallaya’s Kingfisher bagged the rights to sponsor all the third umpire decisions and has become an official umpire partner for all the 59 matches to be  player.Kingfisher bagged these rights by paying Rs 106 crore.

“Kingfisher Airlines has had a long association with a variety of sports at both the domestic and international levels including Tennis, Formula 1, Polo and now cricket. Their decision bears testimony to the fact that the DLF Indian Premier League is here to stay, and is set to carve out a distinct niche for itself in the international cricket calendar,” said Lalit Modi, chairman and commissioner, DLF Indian Premier League.

As per the agreement, Kingfisher Airlines will receive branding on the umpires’ uniform including their shirts and hats during the tournament along with several other activation opportunities around the property.

Vijay Mallya, chairman & CEO, Kingfisher Airlines, said: We are delighted to extend our partnership with the DLF Indian Premier League with Kingfisher Airlines coming in as the official umpire partner. Our five-year association with the DLF Indian Premier League is further testimony to our commitment to building the Kingfisher Airlines brand through sports. The DLF Indian Premier League is a highly innovative concept and the Twenty20 format will undoubtedly take cricket’s popularity to a new high. Kingfisher Airlines will present the DLF IPL umpires in a completely new and modern style while retaining their critical role in the sport.”

The first match will be played between Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders and Vijay Mallya’s Royal Challengers of Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

Icon player concept is introduced in the Indian Premier League.Explaining this, an icon player is a player who can only play for his home city in the competition.These icon players don’t have to go through bidding.These icon players have an advantage that they are guaranteed to get paid at least 15% more than the next top earner in their team.

List of icon players * Sachin Tendulkar for Mumbai Indians
* Rahul Dravid for Bangalore Royal Challengers
* Sourav Ganguly for Kolkata Knight Riders
* Yuvraj Singh for Mohali
* Virender Sehwag for Delhi DareDevils

V.V.S Laxman was also offered the icon player status but he declined it.

Though Mahinder Singh Dhoni was the highest paid cricketer in Indian Premier League but Australian Player Andrew Symonds was also not far away. He was auctioned for Rs 5.4 crore as against M.S.Dhoni ( Rs 6 crore).

The other foreign players who were auctioned at a very high price are :-

On February 20, 2008 the birth of a billion dollar baby occurred in form of Indian Premier League in India.This new venture of mixing business with sports is all set to rock and roll not only the existing players but also to the ones which have just started the cricketing classes.Never before in history of cricket such a huge amount had been spent or raised on a single day.On that day a total of $37.63 million was spent on 77 players by the big cash machines of Indian Industry including Vijay Mallya, Preity Zinta Shahrukh Khan , Juhi Chawla and many more.

Board of cricket control in India or the BCCI has again showed the whole world why are they considered to be the best managing boards when it comes to cricket.Out from no where, this unique idea has made not only the board richer but has also made the parents think seriously about this buddying prospect for there children.With that kind of money involved, now the parents will be more than happy to send children to play cricket.

BCCI:Earning Money From All Corners

The BCCI has earned more than $1.8 billion from mid January even before a single ball being balled.This money is from television rights and franchise auctions.The deal with Sony Entertainment Television and World Sports Group is expected to earn $ 1.026 billion over the next 10 years which is slightly less than $1.1 billion which the ICC ( International Cricket Counsel) will get in next 8 years from ESPN who own the rights covering Two World Cups, Champions Trophies and Twenty20 competitions.
This Billion Dollar Baby - IPL has made BCCI in the top 170 corporate entities in terms of revenues.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

REVENUES

80% of TV revenues in years 1-5, and 60% in years 5-10

60% of sponsorship revenues through 10 years

Gate revenues

Franchisee shirt sponsorship

Local Sponsorship

Licensing programme

Uniform merchandising

IPL title sponsorship

4-6″official platforms

IPL team uniform supply

Apart from these, there are ample more opportunities to milk out the cash cow ie IPL

In the second round of auctions  for ndian Premier League (IPL) Australian all-rounder James Hopes  topped the bidding and was purchased by Mohali for a whopping $US300,000. James Hopes has played only  28 one day internationals and three Twenty20 matches for Australia but the performance against India helped him earn this much

Other Australian players who were auctioned today were : -

1) Shane Watson bought by Jaipur for $US125,000.

2) Luke Pomersbach was bought by Mohali for $US50,000

3) Brett Geeves  was bought by Delhi for $US50,000

Banalore also bought two players today.These were Pakistani Misbah-ul Haq  who was bidded  for $US125,000 and New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor for $US100,000.

Pakistan’s premier batsman Mohammad Yousuf did not find takers but will get a retainer being paid for all contracted players with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

 Nottinghamshire gave permission to David Husstey to take part in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League.Earlier there was some problems prevailing due to the contract which David Hussey had with Nottinghamshire but now it seems to be settled amicably

The much awaited auction of players who were not the part of earlier autions for the Indian Premier League will be held in Mumbai on March 11.There was some strong speculation about some English players being the part but this was not officially confirmed.The second auction may prove to be beneficial for Rajasthan Royals, which had spent less than the minimum cap of $3.3 million in the first auction in Mumbai.

On January 24,2008 the following eight franchises won the bids and this bidding made the Board Of Cricket Control In India richer by US$723.59 million.The CEO Sunder Raman and commissioner Lalit Modi are said to be the master mind behind all this concept.

The television rights were purchased by Sony Television and  World Sports Group for a duration of ten years at a cost of US$1.026 billion. The consortium has agreed upon to pay US$918 million for the telecast rights and US$108 million for the promotion of the tournament.

Network Ten has bought the rights to show every game live in Australia on free-to-air television for the next five years at a cost of AU$10 - $15 million.In Uk , Setanta Sports have agreed on a 5-year deal and all the 59 games will be shown on their subscription channels. 

Indian real estate developer DLF Universal secured exclusive rights to the Indian Premier League title sponsorship worth INR 200 crore (over US$50 million) for five years.

IPL or The Indian Premier League is a Twenty20 cricket competition which was created by BCCI that is the Board of Control for Cricket in India and was sanctioned by the International Cricket Council.

BCCI has planned a complete structure involving the teams , match schedules , winning prizes and much more.Indian Premier League is scheduled to start in April 2008 and will last for 44 days. A total of 59 matches are to be played and the winner will take away with him a whopping sum of $3 million which is some what equal to Rs 13 Crore (Approx)

Team Structure
On deciding the team structure BCCI has done something very interesting and which will also be beneficial for the upcoming cricket players. A total of 16 players are supposed to be in a team with minimum four players which are under 22 . This is one of the most appreciated work done so as to promote the game between upcoming teens.Additionally, a maximum of eight foreign players are allowed per team.

The governing council consists of Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi, Sunil Gavaskar, MAK Pataudi and Ravi Shastri, Rajiv Shukla, Chirayu Amin, Inderjit Singh Bindra and Arun Jaitley.