Career Guide presents IPL to all cricket lovers in three parts. Don’t forget to follow up!

Is the Indian cricket going the English Premier League way?  It does seem so. The introduction of the Indian Premier League (IPL), certainly going to change the outlook of the Indian cricket in particular, and the World cricket in general.

IPL, the brainchild of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), is a played in the Twenty20 league format. And it has the blessings of the International Cricket Council (ICC), the world governing body of cricket. Eight franchise teams owned by business tycoons from India, Bollywood stars and media magnets feature in the league.

Sizzling Stars: Some of the world’s top class cricketers will be seen in action, which would definitely keep fans on the edge of their seats. With moneybags at their disposal, some of the bigwigs of the Indian business, made it a prestigious event by bidding for top stars with huge amounts. How about watching Indian ‘Little Master’ Sachin Tendulkar and the ‘Murderer from Matara’ , Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya blasting the bowlers from both ends. Precisely, this is what the Mukesh Ambani-owned Mumbai Indians would be unleashing on their rivals. And that’s not all, the Shah Rukh Khan & Juhi Chawla-owned Kolkata Knight Riders will have an enviable pace attack of India’s latest speedster Ishant Sharma and Pakistan’s controversial Shoaib Akhtar bowling in tandem.

Format: All the eight teams will have a pool of 16 players, with a maximum of eight overseas players and a minimum of four U-22 players besides a minimum of four players from the catchment area as is fixed by the governing body. IPL franchises bought the best cricketers of the world through the players’ auction held on February 20 in Mumbai.
The franchises sans icon players - Chennai and Hyderabad - spent lavishly to net big fishes in the shape of  India’s ODI skipper Mahender Singh Dhoni ($1.5m) and Australia allrounder- Andrew Symonds ($1.35m) respectively. Franchises bought players -Indian and international - of their liking from a pool of 77.

Each team will play seven others in the fray on home and away basis. The top four teams at the end of league stages will make it to semifinals’ and bottom four will play classification matches.. The inaugural event, involving 59 ties, will kick-start on April 18, when Vijaya Mallaya-owned Bangalore Royal Challengers take on SRK-owned Kolkata at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. The franchise teams will battle it out for 44 days for a US$3m prize money.

IPL, the billion-dollar first-of-its-kind in cricket tournament, is designed after the mega sporting events like English Premier League (EPL) and MLB (Baseball league in North America). However the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question is: Will the much-hyped IPL will prove a big hit. Just wait and watch!

Franchises:
The magnitude of the Indian Premier League was confirmed when the winning bidders for the eight franchises were announced on January 24, 2008. While the total base price for auction was US$400 million, the auction fetched US$723.59 million. The official list of franchise owners announced and the winning bids were as follows.

Franchise owner and price paid: Bangalore - Vijay Mallya/UB group - USD 111.6 million ;
Chennai Super Kings - India Cements - USD 91 million

Delhi DareDevils - GMR group - USD 84 million
Hyderabad - Deccan Chronicle - USD 107 million

Jaipur - Emerging Media (Manoj Badale, Lachlan Murdoch, Suresh Chellaram and investors) - USD 67 million

Kolkata - Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment in partnership with Juhi Chawla and Jay Mehta - USD 75.09 million

Mohali - Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia (Bombay Dyeing), Karan Paul (Apeejay Surendera Group) and Dabur’s Mohit Burman - USD 76 million

Mumbai - Mumbai Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited - USD 111.9 million

IPL TEAMS

1. Banglore (Royal Challengers): :Rahul Dravid(Captain),Zaheer Khan,Mark Boucher,Cameron White,Anil Kumble,Jaques Kallis,Wasim jafer,Nathan Bracken,Dale Steyn,Shivnarayan Chanderpaul,Misbah Ul-Haq,Parveen Kumar,Virat Kohli,Srivastva Goswami,Abdur Razzaq,Ross Taylor,Sunil Joshi,R Vinay Kumar,B Akhil ,Devraj Patil,K.P.Appana,Bharath Chipli,J Arun Kumar
COACH:Venkatesh Prasad

2.Delhi(Dare Devils): Virender Sehwag(Captain), Dinesh Kartik,Gautam Gambhir,Manoj Tiwari,Mohhamad Asif,Daniel Vitori,Shoiab Malik,AB de Villiers,Farveez Mehroof,Tilekratne Dilshan, Glen Macgrath, Brett Greeves, Padeep Sangwan, Mithun Manhas,Rajat Bhatia,Shikhar Dhawan,Mayank Tehlan,Y. Mahesh,Amit Mishra 
COACH:Greg Shipperd .

3. Chennai (Super Kings) : Mahender Singh Dhoni,Mutthia Murlaitharan,Jacob Oram,Allbe Morkel,Mathew Hayden,Parthiv Patel,Joginder Sharma,Suresh Raina,Mkhaya Ntini,Michael Hussey,Stephen  Fleming, R.Ashwin, S.Anirudha, Suddep Tyagi,Laxmipati Balaji,S.Badrinath,Napolean Einstien,Sahbad Jakati,Abhinav Mukund,Viraj Kadbe
Coach : Keper Vessels

4.Mohali(Kings XI Punjab):                     
Yuvraj Singh(Captain)Bret Lee,Mahela Jaywardene,Kumar Sangakaara,  S.Sreesanth,Ramesh Powar, Piyush Chawla, Simon Katich,Ramnaresh Sarwan,James Hopes, LukesPomersBatch, K.Mills, V.R.V.Singh, Uday Kaul, Karan Goel, Ajitesh Argal,Tanmay Srivastva, Irfan Pathan
Coach :Tom Moody
               
5.Kolkatta (Knight Riders):                                      Saurav ganguly(Captain), Shoiab Akhtar, Ishant Sharma, Chris Gayle,Braddin Macculum, David Hussey, Ricky Pointing, Ajit Agarkar, Murli Kartik, Umur Gul, Tetenda Taibu, Salman Batt, Mohhamad Hafiz,  Siddharth Kaul,Iqbal Abdullah
Coach :John Buchanan

6.  Hyderabad(Deccan Chargers) :
V.V.s. Laxman(captain), Andrew Symonds, Rohit Sharma, R.P.Singh, Adam Ghilchrist, Shahid Afridi,Chamara Silva, Chaminda Vaas, Nyuan Joysa, Scott Styris, H.Gibbs , Venugopala Rao, Pragayan Ojha,Halhadar Das,Dwarka Ravi Teja,Arjun Yadav,Kalyan Krishna,Paidikalva Vijay Kumar,Sanjay Bangar,Sarveesh Kumar      
Coach :Robin Singh

7.Jaipur (Rajasthan Royals) :                                    Shane Warne (captain), Mohhamad Kaif, Graeme Smith, Yonis Khan, Kamran Akmal,Yusuf Pathan, Munaf Patel, Justin Langer, Morne Morkel, Dmitry Mascarenhas, Shane Watson, Sohail Tanvir, Ravindra Jadeja and Taruwar Kohli
Coach:Shane Warne

8. Mumbai (Mumbai Indians):
Sachin Tendulkar(Captain),Harbhajan Singh,Robin Utahppa,Sanath Jaisurya,Shaun Pollock,Lasith Malinga,Loots Bosman,Dilhara Fernando,Ajinkya Rahane,Abhishek Nayar,Yogesh Takawale,Pinal Shah ,Aswell Prince,Manish Pandey,Saurabh Tiwari
Date Time Match Venue Result
Schedule
April 18 [Fri], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Bangalore Vs Kolkata Bangalore* 
April 19 [Sat], 2008 9:30 GMT / 15:00 IST Mohali Vs Chennai Mohali* 
April 19 [Sat], 2008 14:30 GMT / 20:00 IST Delhi Vs Jaipur Delhi* 
April 20 [Sun], 2008 9:30 GMT / 15:00 IST Mumbai Vs Bangalore Mumbai 
April 20 [Sun], 2008 14:30 GMT / 20:00 IST Kolkata Vs Hyderabad Kolkata* 
April 21 [Mon], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Jaipur Vs Mohali Jaipur* 
April 22 [Tue], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Hyderabad Vs Delhi Hyderabad 
April 23 [Wed], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Chennai Vs Mumbai Chennai* 
April 24 [Thu], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Hyderabad Vs Jaipur Hyderabad 
April 25 [Fri], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Mohali Vs Mumbai Mohali 
April 26 [Sat], 2008 9:30 GMT / 15:00 IST Bangalore Vs Jaipur Bangalore 
April 26 [Sat], 2008 14:30 GMT / 20:00 IST Chennai Vs Kolkata Chennai 
April 27 [Sun], 2008 9:30 GMT / 15:00 IST Mumbai Vs Hyderabad Mumbai 
April 27 [Sun], 2008 14:30 GMT / 20:00 IST Mohali Vs Delhi Mohali 
April 28 [Mon], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Bangalore Vs Chennai Bangalore 
April 29 [Tue], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Kolkata Vs Mumbai Kolkata 
April 30 [Wed], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Delhi Vs Bangalore Delhi
May 01 [Thu], 2008 9:30 GMT / 15:00 IST Hyderabad Vs Mohali Hyderabad 
May 01 [Thu], 2008 14:30 GMT / 20:00 IST Jaipur Vs Kolkata Jaipur 
May 02 [Fri], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Chennai Vs Delhi Chennai 
May 03 [Sat], 2008 9:30 GMT / 15:00 IST Hyderabad Vs Bangalore Hyderabad 
May 03 [Sat], 2008 14:30 GMT / 20:00 IST Mohali Vs Kolkata Mohali 
May 04 [Sun], 2008 9:30 GMT / 15:00 IST Mumbai Vs Delhi Mumbai 
May 04 [Sun], 2008 14:30 GMT / 20:00 IST Jaipur Vs Chennai Jaipur 
May 05 [Mon], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Bangalore Vs Mohali Bangalore 
May 06 [Tue], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Chennai Vs Hyderabad Chennai 
May 07 [Wed], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Mumbai Vs Jaipur Mumbai 
May 08 [Thu], 2008 9:30 GMT / 15:00 IST Delhi Vs Chennai Delhi 
May 08 [Thu], 2008 14:30 GMT / 20:00 IST Kolkata Vs Bangalore Kolkata 
May 09 [Fri], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Jaipur Vs Hyderabad Jaipur 
May 10 [Sat], 2008 9:30 GMT / 15:00 IST Bangalore Vs Mumbai Bangalore 
May 10 [Sat], 2008 14:30 GMT / 20:00 IST Chennai Vs Mohali Chennai 
May 11 [Sun], 2008 9:30 GMT / 15:00 IST Hyderabad Vs Kolkata Hyderabad 
May 11 [Sun], 2008 14:30 GMT / 20:00 IST Jaipur Vs Delhi Jaipur 
May 12 [Mon], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Mohali Vs Bangalore Mohali Vs 
May 13 [Tue], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Kolkata Vs Delhi Kolkata 
May 14 [Wed], 2008 9:30 GMT / 15:00 IST Mumbai Vs Chennai Mumbai 
May 14 [Wed], 2008 14:30 GMT / 20:00 IST Mohali Vs Jaipur Mohali 
May 15 [Thu], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Delhi Vs Hyderbad Delhi 
May 16 [Fri], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Mumbai Vs Kolkata Mumbai 
May 17 [Sat], 2008 9:30 GMT / 15:00 IST Delhi Vs Mohali Delhi 
May 17 [Sat], 2008 14:30 GMT / 20:00 IST Jaipur Vs Bangalore Jaipur 
May 18 [Sun], 2008 9:30 GMT / 15:00 IST Hyderabad Vs Mumbai Hyderabad 
May 18 [Sun], 2008 14:30 GMT / 20:00 IST Kolkata Vs Chennai Kolkata 
May 19 [Mon], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Bangalore Vs Delhi Bangalore 
May 20 [Tue], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Kolkata Vs Jaipur Kolkata 
May 21 [Wed], 2008 9:30 GMT / 15:00 IST Mumbai Vs Mohali Mumbai 
May 21 [Wed], 2008 14:30 GMT / 20:00 IST Chennai Vs Bangalore Chennai 
May 22 [Thu], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Delhi Vs Kolkata Delhi 
May 23 [Fri], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Mohali Vs Hyderabad Mohali 
May 24 [Sat], 2008 9:30 GMT / 15:00 IST Delhi Vs Mumbai Delhi 
May 24 [Sat], 2008 14:30 GMT / 20:00 IST Chennai Vs Jaipur Chennai 
May 25 [Sun], 2008 9:30 GMT / 15:00 IST Bangalore Vs Hyderabad Bangalore 
May 25 [Sun], 2008 14:30 GMT / 20:00 IST Kolkata Vs Mohali Kolkata 
May 26 [Mon], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Jaipur Vs Mumbai Jaipur 
May 27 [Tue], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Hyderabad Vs Chennai Hyderabad 
May 30 [Fri], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Ist semi-final Brabourne Stadium,      Mumbai 
May 31 [Sat], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST 2nd semi-final Brabourne Stadium,      Mumbai 
June 01 [Sun], 2008 13:30 GMT / 19:00 IST Final Brabourne Stadium,      Mumbai