Indian Premier League (IPL) | IPL, T20, Table, Matches, Score, 2025, 2024, 2023, & Auction – britannica.com

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The Indian Premier League (IPL) is an Indian professional twenty20 (T20) cricket league established in 2008. The IPL is based on a double round-robin group and knockout format and has teams in major Indian cities.
There were eight teams in the first Indian Premier League. The Mumbai Indians, the Chennai Super Kings, the Royal Challengers Bangalore (renamed the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2024), the Deccan Chargers (based in Hyderabad), the Delhi Daredevils (renamed the Delhi Capitals in 2019), the Kings XI Punjab (based in Mohali; rebranded as the Punjab Kings in 2021), the Kolkata Knight Riders, and the Rajasthan Royals (Jaipur).
The first Indian Premier League tournament, held over 44 days in 2008, was won by the Rajasthan Royals, one of the smaller-market franchises, which was captained by Shane Warne, the great Australian bowler.
The player auction for the 2026 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is scheduled for December 16, 2025, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. There are 77 vacancies across the various squads participating in IPL 2026, with a maximum of 31 slots available for non-Indian players. The IPL shortlisted 350 players from a list of more than 1,300 who had registered for the auction.
Indian Premier League (IPL), Indian professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league that was established in 2008 and has developed into one of the richest sports leagues in the world. The brainchild of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the Indian Premier League (IPL) sees 10 teams compete in a double round-robin group and knockout format each season.
The advent of the IPL brought unprecedented levels of commercial investment and global attention to the sport. During the league’s first auction, held in Mumbai in January 2008, various bidders—including major companies, Bollywood film stars, and media moguls—vied for ownership of the franchises. The franchise auction generated $723.59 million, nearly double the collective base price of $400 million the organizers set for the eight franchises. The Mumbai franchise was the most expensive, with a winning bid of $111.9 million.
The eight founding franchises were the Mumbai Indians, the Chennai Super Kings, the Royal Challengers Bangalore (renamed the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2024), the Deccan Chargers, the Delhi Daredevils (renamed the Delhi Capitals in 2019), the Kings XI Punjab (rebranded as the Punjab Kings in 2021), the Kolkata Knight Riders, and the Rajasthan Royals.
In late 2010 Rajasthan and Punjab were temporarily removed from the league by the BCCI for breaches of ownership policy but were reinstated in time for the 2011 tournament. Two new franchises, the Pune Warriors India and the Kochi Tuskers Kerala, joined the IPL for the 2011 tournament. The Kochi club played for just one year before the BCCI terminated its contract. The Deccan Chargers’ franchise was terminated as well in 2012 and was replaced by the Sunrisers Hyderabad from the 2013 IPL onward. Pune withdrew from the league in 2013 over financial disputes. In 2015 the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were handed two-season suspensions after a spot-fixing and betting scandal. They were replaced by the Rising Pune Supergiant and Gujarat Lions (Rajkot) teams for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. The two franchises exited the league once the Royals and Super Kings returned for the 2018 edition. In 2022 the IPL roster was increased to 10 teams once again with the addition of the Gujarat Titans and the Lucknow Super Giants.
Initially each team played against all the other teams in the league twice during a season, but, with the expansion to 10 clubs in 2011, a double round-robin format was introduced. The tournament returned to the original league format after the Kochi franchise was terminated ahead of IPL 2012. Since 2022 with the participating teams numbering 10 once again, the IPL has reintroduced the double round-robin format. In this format the teams are ranked according to the number of IPL title victories and playoff qualifications. They are divided into two virtual groups: Group A, comprising the teams ranked first, third, fifth, seventh, and ninth; and Group B, consisting of the teams ranked second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and tenth.
During the season, each team plays against the other four teams in its group twice, the team with the corresponding rank in the other group twice, and each of the remaining four teams once. Each team faces a different combination of nine competitors in a season, playing a total of 14 matches (twice against five teams and once against the remaining four).
Teams get two points for a win, one point for a no-result or tie, and no points for a loss. The teams are ranked on a points table, with their net run rate (NRR) used as a tiebreaker if required. The top four teams at the end of the group stage qualify for the playoffs.
The playoffs comprise a three-match knockout format before the final. The top two teams in the table face off in the Qualifier 1 match, with the winner advancing directly to the final. The third- and fourth-placed teams play in the Eliminator match, with the winner then facing off against the loser of Qualifier 1 in the Qualifier 2 match to earn the second place in the final.
The first IPL tournament, held over 44 days in 2008, was won by the Rajasthan Royals, one of the smaller-market franchises, captained by Shane Warne, the great Australian bowler. According to a Forbes report in 2022, the average value of the IPL franchises shows an annualized growth rate of 24 percent, up from $67 million in 2009 (of 8 teams) to $1.04 billion in 2022 (of 10 teams). This growth in average team value, when compared with the past 13 years’ growth rate of 10 percent for National Football League (NFL) team values and 16 percent for National Basketball Association team values, is remarkable. Expectations about the 2023–27 media contract contributed to the team value in 2022.
For the five-year cycle starting in 2023, streaming and TV rights were sold for a record total of $6 billion to Viacom18 and Star India (owned by Disney). This is more than double the amount at which media rights were sold for the previous cycle. Such has been the IPL’s success that the BCCI announced a new league for women’s cricket, the Women’s Premier League (WPL), which played its inaugural season in March 2023. In the wake of the IPL’s success, other cricketing countries scrambled to grab some of the riches by forming their own domestic T20 leagues. Major League Cricket (MLC), a U.S. T20 cricket league launched in 2023, also has its IPL connections: four of its six franchises have investments from IPL franchise owners, and many IPL cricketers feature in MLC.
The IPL has seen multiple controversial moments during its history so far. Some prominent incidents include:
Results of the Indian Premier League championship are provided in the table.

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