The first season of the Indian Premier League “IPL 2008” commenced on the 18th of April 2008 with a grand opening ceremony at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. The packed stadium was lit up with spectacular fireworks and the crowd was left gasping for breath and asking for more when the captains of the eight participating IPL T20 teams walked out to sign the MCC’s spirit of cricket, under which the tournament was to be played. There was a newness, a freshness with which everything was being done, never before in Indian subcontinent would you have seen that the majority of the crowd that had come to watch the opening match were females and children. IPL T20 had indeed achieved the unexpected.
The first IPL T20 match of IPL 2008 was between “Vijay Mallya’s” Bangalore Royal Challengers and “ShahRukh Khan’s” KolKata Night Riders. The stage was set for a grand contest between the king of Bollywood and the king of Bangalore. The mission was accomplished and the stage was set for an amazing roller coaster ride for the coming month and a half. The first season “IPL 2008” of the Indian Premier League as expected turned out to be a grand success. Rajasthan Royals was the winner of IPL 2008 of IPL T20 while Chennai Super Kings was the runner up.
The second season of the Indian Premier League, “IPL 2009” did run into rough weather initially with regards to the schedule and then due to security concerns, as the second season of IPL T20 was clashing with the Indian General Elections. Indian govt. refused to provide the extra security requested for the IPL T20 teams and the international players playing in the tournament IPL 2009. It was thus a last ditch effort by Lalit Modi and his team to save IPL 2009 from being cancelled by shifting it to South Africa. Even though it was done at the very last minute, cricket South Africa and the South African Government were so on the money with what was required to be done to make it a success, that it is hard to find flaws with how IPL 2009 was organised and IPL T20 teams, spectators and the media were handled. Everything was well executed, the teams were assigned a home city and the format, the scheduled was managed in a way that it was primetime in India for the telecast of most of the live matches. Relocating IPL 2009 did pose additional expenses but even then the 2nd season of Indian Premier League i.e. IPL 2009 was eventually hailed as an extraordinary accomplishment. It had set a record television viewership and the total revenue earned was 10.970 Crore. Deccan Chargers was the winners of IPL 2009, the 2nd Season of IPL T20 while Royal Challengers was the runner up.
After successful finish of IPL 2008 and IPL 2009 the Indian Premier League is coming with IPL 2010 in March of 2010. |
