From SohajPedia, the daily world briefing
Indian Premier League
Every spring, for about eight weeks, India rearranges its evenings around the Indian Premier League. The IPL is a franchise Twenty20 cricket league run by the BCCI: ten city teams, bought at auction and stuffed with the world's best players, playing a short, loud, made-for-television tournament. It is also a financial phenomenon — by revenue per match, one of the richest sporting leagues on Earth.
The IPL in numbers
Titles by team
Royal Challengers Bengaluru are the current champions, winning the 2026 final against Gujarat Titans — their second title in a row.
How it started
The IPL was born from a fight. In 2007 a rival competition, the Indian Cricket League, launched without the BCCI's blessing; the board responded by banning its players — and by building something much bigger of its own. Announced in September 2007 and first played in April 2008, the IPL sold its original eight franchises for a combined US$723.59 million, several times what the reserve prices had expected. The formula — city loyalty, Bollywood owners, cheerleaders, and cricket compressed into three hours — worked instantly. In 2010 it became the first sporting event ever broadcast live on YouTube.
How the tournament works
Ten franchises play each other home and away in a double round-robin, after which the top four enter playoffs that end in a final. The league has its own flavour of rules: strategic time-outs in each innings, a Decision Review System, and an "impact player" substitute each team may introduce during a match. Squads are capped at 25 players, with a maximum of four overseas players allowed in any playing eleven — a rule that keeps the league Indian at its core while importing star power. Two teams, Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans, joined in 2022 to take the league from eight teams to ten.
The money
The numbers are startling for a league barely old enough to vote. Media rights for the four seasons from 2023 were sold for US$6.4 billion — roughly US$13.4 million per match. Winning the tournament paid ₹20 crore in prize money in 2025 (about US$2.5 million), half of which league rules say must be shared among the players. Franchise owners have since exported the model, buying teams in leagues in South Africa, the UAE, the Caribbean and the United States.
Records that matter
Nineteen seasons in, the honours board has a settled look. Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians are the most successful teams, with five titles each. Royal Challengers Bengaluru are the current champions, having beaten Gujarat Titans in the 2026 final to win their second title, a year after their first. Virat Kohli — who has played for RCB his entire IPL career — stands clear as the league's highest run-scorer with 9,336 runs, while leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal leads the wicket-takers with 233. A women's edition, the Women's Premier League, has run alongside since 2023.
Frequently asked questions
See also
References
Photograph: an IPL match in Chennai, 2008, via Wikimedia Commons.