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 3rd April, 2012 and the series will continue till the finale on 27th 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 6th 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.
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