India is a cricket crazy nation. Cricket is almost a religion here, and is ardently followed and practiced. No one will question you if you zealously follow the game, but aspersions would definitely be cast on someone who does not. Raise an eyebrow if you may, but that is how we love our cricket. How can one not love cricket? The love for the game in fact begins when one is still young; and why not, with everyone all around talking only cricket, the addiction (if I may call it so) is bound to happen. Whenever the cricketing season is on the nation gets affected by the cricket mania and everyone wishes the world would come to a grinding halt, since nothing else could be more significant than the all important cricket!

Many Indians are diehard cricket fans that they can never get enough of the game. For them, cricket is not just another game; it is all about the excitement and feeling the rush of adrenaline that they get from it. With the introduction of the 20-20 IPL tournament all the cricket fans could not be happier. Now there is more cricket to follow. It is a complete package that the IPL tournaments have to offer; the players, the glamour, the excitement, the entertainment, the adrenaline rush and of course the game itself. Imagine three hours of this!

Many lead a busy life and have to work for a living. Trouble is no matter how bad they wish their work does not stop when the IPL season is on. Thankfully the IPL live scores are there for such individuals who can keep tabs on what is happening in the game, even while at work.

The IPL live score provides a ball by ball description of what is actually happening on the field. Cricket fans can follow the game with live updates which they can either receive on their phones or view on their computers.

There are of course a lot of reasons why IPL Live score is available for fans. The main reason of course is that everyone wants to know what is happening in a match and the outcome as each ball as it is bowled or played. No one has the patience to wait for a rerun of the match on television. The other is the big money involved in the tournament. IPL is touted as being second only to the NBA on a pro rata basis. With this kind of money everyone wants to have a piece of the pie. This includes the advertisers. The one way they find it easy to make a lot of money is by providing live updates on IPL to the keen viewer.

Everyone is pleased with this setup. The audience that follows the game gets ball by ball data even when they are unable to watch the game live. They are able to follow the performance of their favorite team or players while at work or travelling; thanks to the IPL live score. The promoter on the other hand earns his millions through the advertisement campaigns and from those who sign up to receiving the live updates. This arrangement is surely a great choice for the cricket fans that do not have time to watch the match live.

Cricket is one of the most interesting sources of entertainment and it has been mesmerizing people with ecstasy and fun. The sensation and madness increases and reaches to its highest limit when everyone catches the World Cup fever or IPL fever. Every sports fan wants to know the structure of their favorite team as well as status of their favorite sportsperson.

Indian Premier League (IPL), organized by Board of Controls for Cricket in India, is coming with its fifth version. The curtains for IPL will be raised on 3^rd April, 2012 and the series will continue till the finale on 27^th May, 2012. This 54 days long series will take place on the grounds of Indian subcontinent. IPL 2012 includes 74 matches, and this figure matches the number of games played in 2011. This season of ‘Indian Premier League’ will start once Indian Team will return from Australia tour. In the Australian tour, they are scheduled to play 5 Test Matches, 2 T20 International and a Tri Series against Australia and Sri Lanka. Indian team will not play any game during the IPL season; however international players from Australia, West Indies and Pakistan will miss the game because of their involvement in other series.

For IPL 2012, number of teams has increased to 10 as a new team Sahara Pune Warriors had made an entry. According to recent news the ‘Kochi Tuskers Kerala’ is no more a part of IPL as they were not able to return the money which they owed to Indian Cricket Board (BCCI). This franchise was bought by Rendezvous Sports Company which made its entry in 2011, securing eighth place under the captaincy of Mahela Jayawardene and later in with Parthiv Patel. They had six wins and eight defeats to their name. According to the sources, they defaulted in making yearly payment to BCCI, and then decision of expelling the team from this season was taken. Kochi franchise committed irreversible breach due to which BCCI took the decision of terminating the franchise by paying the bank guarantee in their possession. In September, BCCI had recommended to exclude Kochi team. The decision was taken that if players fail to attract bids, the IPL will compensate Kochi players, and the total amount is Rs. 156 crores.

The IPL works on a wonderful concept of bringing both domestic as well as international cricket stars under the same camp. Since the starting, IPL has acquired fabulous amount of viewership as well as TRP. The excitement rises with every new season, and one of the most awaited episodes of IPL is the auction of players, which decides the fate of every team. This auction gives a chance to the teams to acquire players who are up for sale as well as those players who are not having contacts to team up with a particular franchise. Many of the players have still not entered the battlefield and this opportunity is provided to them through auction. Of course, players need to give prior intimation regarding their interest in becoming part of IPL auction. This makes them eligible to be sold during the rounds of auction, or else they need to extend their wait till the 6^th IPL season. The recent news confirms that Auction of IPL fifth season will be held in late January or early February of 2012. In case the Kochi players fail in their attempt of attracting the bid, IPL itself will take care of their salaries. The top players who will be part of auction are Muttiah Muralitharan, Brendon McCullum, Mahela Jayawardene and Ravindra Jadeja.

While Chirayu Amin, chairman of IPL was announcing the match schedule of the fifth season, he said that this session is going to be more thrilling and exciting as compared to previous IPL season. The Indian Premier League started in 2007 and was established by Board of Control for Cricket in India. Chepauk will be the venue of IPL finals.

The number of players for every team has increased to 33, including 11 foreign players in every team, while this number was 10 in previous year. Each team will play one game in home town and another game away from his home town. And in the final performing team, only 4 foreign players will be included. This time the team will get an additional salary of $2 million. In this tournament, the winning team will get 2 points and losing team will not get any point. In case of a draw, the point gets divided between the two teams and the result is announced by Super over.

In this season of IPL each of the teams will play 16 games in comparison to previous years when only 14 games were played. This time IPL will also get back to its previous trend where two teams used to face each other twice.

Along with lots of big changes in IPL season 5, MAXX Mobile, IPL’s sponsor for previous year has also backed out and has terminated their three years contract, which they started in 2010. However, they need to compensate IPL for exiting the contract at this crucial stage.

In terms of players this season of IPL is believed to be quite interesting. Contrary to all assumption, Chris Gayle is going to stay with Royal Challengers like the previous year. He had replaced Dirk Nannes in 2011 season and led the team to the finals. So team owners don’t want to loose him. All Rounder’s Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo have been given a No Objection Certificate in order to play in IPL 2012.

Being the longest tournament of this year, IPL season 5 will clash with many other international tours including Australian tour of West Indies in April as well as West Indies England tour in May. West Indies may also have to face issues as many of their players will miss the home series in order to participate in this money-spinning series.

Whatever be the scenario of the cricket world till the beginning of IPL 2012, the cricket lovers will welcome this series with great enthusiasm and zeal.

Indian Premier League will be 5 years old this year. With the beginning of the IPL season 5 in 2012, it will be another season of fun, excitement, glitz and glamour. It is needless to say that Indian Premier League has brought together the excitement of the game and glamour of Bollywood hand in hand making up a big spectacle for the entire nation. During the game, we can watch celebrities in the boxes along with their families and friends cheering for a team, thus we get thrilled watching the players putting up their best in the twenty overs of match.

Every Indian who loves cricket wishes to watch the IPL season. While planning how to watch IPL live, nowadays you have quite a few options in your hand. Some of the options include:

• Going to the stadium where the match is being played
• Watching the matches on TV
• Live streaming of videos on the internet
• Watching the live game on your mobile phone

Going to the stadium

It has always been the most wonderful experience of all. Right from the beginning when sports were being considered as an entertainment, people watched sports on the playground or arena where it was performed. Cricket is the most loved games in India and thus whenever there is a match, the stadium gets over crowded with excited supporters of both the teams. Nothing can be more exhilarating than watching your favorite players playing live in the stadium in front of you. The Stadium offers the feel of true bonding between the game of cricket and Indian cricket fanatics. Thus IPL should be watched live on stadium if it is possible.

Watching on TV  

Watching your favorite matches on your TV is the most convenient way of getting thrills of the game. Television makes it easier for everyone to watch the IPL matches live as well as getting all the sneak peeks at the celebrities, gossips and everything that happens in the field live. Television also lets you to listen to the commentary from eminent players of yester years and getting to know some small interesting facts about the game while watching the game. It becomes quite difficult to get tickets for the IPL, so television takes you directly to the live action without a ticket and you can view the match live and happening.

Live streaming of videos on the internet

Live streaming has become very popular in the recent times and especially for people who live outside India. Indians abroad always do not get the opportunity to watch the matches live on television due to various reasons. However, not many websites offer legal streaming of live matches or most of the websites are country specific. But people residing in India can watch live IPL on internet steaming videos.

Watching live game on Mobile Phones

With the advent of 3G technology and faster internet on the mobile phones, users can watch live IPL match on their smart phones. It is convenient and you can carry it wherever you wish while watching the match.