The 2008 Indian Premier League season was the inaugural season of the

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league in India, organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Founded in 2007, it features ten city-based Professional sports league organization, fr ...

, established by the

BCCI The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the principal national governing body of the sport of cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at the Cricket Centre in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. BCCI is the wealthiest governing body ...

in 2007. The season commenced on 18 April 2008 with the final match was held on 1 June 2008. The competition started with a

double round robin A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

league stage, in which each of the 8 teams played a home match and an away match against every other team. These matches were followed by two semi-finals and a final. In a match which went down to the last ball,

Rajasthan Royals The Rajasthan Royals, also known as RR, are a professional Twenty20 cricket team based in Jaipur, Rajasthan, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Founded in 2008 as one of the initial eight franchises, the team is owned by Manoj ...

defeated

Chennai Super Kings The Chennai Super Kings, also known as CSK, are a professional Twenty20 cricket team based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The team was one of the eight debut franchises when the league was establ ...

in the final to win the title, with

Yusuf Pathan Yusuf Khan Pathan ( born 17 November 1982) is an Indian former cricketer and politician of the Trinamool Congress. Pathan made his debut in first-class cricket in 2001/02. He was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm off-break bowler. His youn ...

named the player of the match in the Finals and

Shane Watson Shane Robert Watson (born 17 June 1981) is an Australian cricket coach, commentator and former cricketer who played for and occasionally captained the Australia national cricket team, Australian national cricket team between 2002 and 2016. He ...

adjudged the player of the tournament.

Sohail Tanvir Sohail Tanvir (; born 12 December 1984) is a Pakistani former cricketer, who has gained considerable international repute for his unorthodox left arm bowling action and particularly for the success it has gained him in the Twenty20 format of t ...

won the purple cap for being the top wicket-taking bowler while

Shaun Marsh Shaun Edward Marsh (born 9 July 1983) is an Australian cricketer who previously played for the Western Australia cricket team in Australian domestic cricket and has represented Australian national cricket team, Australia in all three formats. Ni ...

won the orange cap for leading run-scorer in the tournament. Shreevats Goswami was awarded the best under-19 player award and the special award for Fair Play was won by the CSK.

Auctions and personnel signings

The auctions for team ownership was held on January 24, 2008.

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

was the most expensive team, costing over 111.9 million. For the inaugural IPL season, each team had a salary cap of US$5 million (Rs. 20 crore approx.).

Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who List of India national cricket captains#Men's cricket, captained the Indian national team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketer ...

Sourav Ganguly Sourav Chandidas Ganguly (; natively spelled as Gangopadhyay; born 8 July 1972), also known as Dada (meaning ''"elder brother"'' in Bengali language, Bengali), is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer. He is popularly called the ...

Rahul Dravid Rahul Dravid (; born 11 January 1973) is a former cricket player, ex-captain and ex-coach of the Indian national cricket team. Known for his outstanding batting technique, Dravid scored 24,177 runs in international cricket and is widely re ...

Yuvraj Singh Yuvraj Singh (born 12 December 1981) is a former Indian international cricketer who played in all formats of the game. An all-rounder who batted left-handed in the middle order and bowled slow left-arm orthodox, he has won 7 Player of the Se ...

and

Virender Sehwag Virender Sehwag (, born 20 October 1978) is a former Indian cricketer who represented India from 1999 to 2013. Widely regarded as one of the most destructive openers and one of the greatest batsmen of his era, he played for Delhi Capitals in I ...

were classified as

icon player Icon player is a status given to an athlete to indicate that they are the most valued player in the team. The title is most commonly currently used in domestic cricket, particularly in the Bangladesh Premier League, Afghanistan Premier League ...

s. They played for the franchises representing their home towns and hence did not enter the auction. Few players were classified as marquee players and the teams which lost out on icon players were allowed one extra marquee player to be selected in the auction. The first auction was conducted on 20 February 2008 with

Mahendra Singh Dhoni Mahendra Singh Dhoni (; born 7 July 1981) is an Indian professional cricketer who plays as a right-handed batter and a wicket-keeper. Widely regarded as one of the most prolific wicket-keeper batsmen and captains and one of the greatest O ...

winning the highest bid of US$1.5 million.

Andrew Symonds Andrew Symonds (9 June 1975 – 14 May 2022) was an Australian international cricketer, who played all three formats as a batting all-rounder. Commonly nicknamed "Roy", he was a key member of two Cricket World Cup, World Cup–winning squads. ...

was most expensive foreign player. A further second auction was held for few foreign players signed. Teams also signed players on individual basis.

Venues

Rules and regulations

Points in the group stage were awarded as follows: In the event of tied scores after both teams have faced their quota of overs, a

bowl-out A bowl-out (sometimes termed a bowl-off) was used as a tiebreaker in various forms of limited overs cricket to decide a match that would otherwise end in a result (cricket)#Tie, tie. Five bowlers from each side deliver one or two balls each at a ...

will determine the winner, even in the group stage. In the group stage, teams will be ranked on the following criteria: # Higher number of points # If equal, higher number of wins # If still equal,

net run rate Net run rate (NRR) is a statistical method used in analysing teamwork and/or performance in cricket. It is the most commonly used method of ranking teams with equal points in limited overs league competitions, similar to goal difference in foo ...

# If still equal, lower bowling strike rate # If still equal, result of head-to-head meeting.

Teams and standings

Points table

Match summary

League stage

Matches

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- * ''Mumbai Indians 5 run outs in their innings is a record in the IPL'' ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Playoffs

Semi-final 1

----

Semi-final 2

Final

Statistics

Most runs

The tournament's leading scorer wore an orange cap when fielding. :

Full Table on ESPNcricinfo
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Most wickets

The tournament's leading wicket taker wore a purple cap when fielding. :

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Note: Economy rate acts as a tie-breaker if players are level for most wickets.

Controversies

Cheerleaders

The IPL received criticism from a few politicians and feminists for bringing in foreign

cheerleaders Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ent ...

, which was seen by many to not be in the traditional spirit of the game, as well as being against some Indian sensibilities. Two cheerleaders from London were asked to leave the ground at Mohali "because of the colour of their skin" by Wizcraft International Entertainment, which handled the team Kings XI Punjab. Ellesha Newton and Sherinne Anderson, both from London and of African ancestry were allegedly barred from entering the stadium by employees of Wizcraft International Entertainment on the pretext that "people don't like dark girls here". Both girls alleged that an employee referred to them with the racial slur "

nigger In the English language, ''nigger'' is a racial slur directed at black people. Starting in the 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been increasingly replaced by the euphemistic contraction , notably in cases where ''nigger'' is Use–menti ...

". The BCCI said a probe would be initiated by the IPL only if the two women officially complain to IPL commissioner Lalit Modi. The BCCI and IPL officials later expressed surprised that the two cheerleaders did not complain about the alleged racist behaviour while they were in India and spoke about it only after they returned to London. "We have not received any complaint from any cheerleaders that they were asked to leave by the Mohali-based Kings XI Punjab franchise recently because of the colour of their skin." BCCI joint secretary M. P. Pandove said in Mohali.

Sreesanth and Harbhajan Singh altercation

On 25 April 2008, following the

Kings XI Punjab The Punjab Kings, also known as PBKS, formerly known as Kings XI Punjab, are a professional Twenty20 cricket team based in New Chandigarh, Punjab, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise is jointly owned by Mohit Burm ...

's victory over the

Mumbai Indians The Mumbai Indians are a professional Twenty20, Twenty20 cricket team based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The Indians were founded in 2008 and are owned by India's largest Conglomerate (company), co ...

Mohali Mohali, officially Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar or Ajitgarh, is a planned city in the Mohali district in Punjab, India, Punjab, India, which is an administrative and a commercial hub lying south-west of Chandigarh. It is the headquarters of the M ...

, Kings XI Punjab player

Sreesanth Shanthakumaran Nair Sreesanth (, born 6 February 1983) is an Indian former cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of ...

was slapped under his eye by

Harbhajan Singh Harbhajan Singh (born 3 July 1980), also known by his nickname Bhajji, is a former Indian cricketer. He later became a politics, politician, serving as a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha. He is also a fil ...

, the stand-in captain of Mumbai Indians. The incident came to light as Sreesanth was caught by TV cameras sobbing inconsolably on the field before the presentation ceremony. Sreesanth had since downplayed the incident saying he had no complaints against Singh who was "like an elder brother" to him. Singh's team had lost their third consecutive match, and he apparently reacted violently to Sreesanth's approaching him and reportedly saying "hard luck". The footage of the slap has not yet been released for public viewing. The BCCI launched an investigation into the incident and decided to ban Singh for the remaining 11 matches of his season.

References

External links

*
ESPNcricinfo – Indian Premier League
{{DEFAULTSORT:Indian Premier League, 2008