The 2016 Indian Premier League season (also known as IPL 9, and branded as Vivo IPL 2016 for sponsorship reasons) was the ninth 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 ...

, a professional

Twenty20 cricket Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

league established by the

Board of Control for Cricket in India 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 ...

(BCCI) in 2007. The season began on 9 April 2016 and concluded on 29 May 2016 with the playing of the finals match between

Royal Challengers Bangalore The Royal Challengers Bengaluru, formerly Royal Challengers Bangalore, also known as RCB, are a professional Twenty20, Twenty20 cricket team based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Founded in 2008 ...

and

Sunrisers Hyderabad The Sunrisers Hyderabad, also known as SRH, are a professional Twenty20 cricket team based in Hyderabad, Telangana, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise is owned by Kalanithi Maran of the Sun Group and was found ...

M. Chinnaswamy Stadium The M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, also known as the Karnataka State Cricket Association Stadium, is a cricket stadium in Bengaluru city of the Indian state of Karnataka. The ground is owned by the Government of Karnataka and operated by the Karnata ...

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

. The 2016 season was the first IPL season to use LED

stumps In cricket, the stumps are the three vertical posts that support the bails and form the wicket. '' Stumping'' or ''being stumped'' is a method of dismissing a batsman. The umpire ''calling stumps'' means the play is over for the day. Part of ...

. Following the suspension of

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 ...

and

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 ...

for two years over a spot-fixing and betting case during the 2013 IPL season, the IPL allocated spots for two new franchises to take their place. The process would result in the establishment of the

Gujarat Lions Gujarat Lions was a franchise cricket team based in the city of Rajkot, that represented the Indian state of Gujarat in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The team played in the IPL, along with Rising Pune Supergiant for two season between 2016 ...

and

Rising Pune Supergiants Rising Pune Supergiant (often abbreviated as RPS) was a franchise cricket team based in Pune, Maharashtra, that played in the Indian Premier League in 2016 and as a finalist in 2017. It was the second team representing Pune after Pune Warriors ...

. The championship was won by

, marking the

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

franchise's second IPL title, with

Ben Cutting Benjamin Colin James Cutting (born 30 January 1987) is an Australian cricketer who plays as an all-rounder. Cutting represented Australia in one-day internationals and T20 matches, and at the 2006 U-19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka. Cutting pl ...

declared the man of the match in the final.

Virat Kohli Virat Kohli (born 5 November 1988) is an Indian Cricket, international cricketer who plays One Day International, ODI cricket for the India national cricket team, national team and is a former Captain (cricket), captain in all formats. He is a ...

was named the most valuable player of the tournament, and

Mustafizur Rahman Mustafizur Rahman (Bengali: মুস্তাফিজুর রহমান; born 6 September 1995) is a Bangladeshi international cricketer. A left-arm fast-medium bowler, he is recognized for his most prolific 'slower cutters' all over t ...

of Sunrisers Hyderabad was named the emerging player of the season. Kohli was the tournament's leading run-scorer with 973 runs and

Bhuvneshwar Kumar Bhuvneshwar Kumar Singh (born 5 February 1990) is an Indian international cricketer who has played for the Indian cricket team in all three formats of the game. He is playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League and plays ...

was the leading wicket-taker of the tournament with 23 wickets. Ever since the introduction of

Page playoff system The Page playoff system is a playoff format. It is used in top level competitions in softball, curling, and the Indian Premier League, Pakistan Super League, and Bangladesh Premier League cricket tournaments, and is used widely in lower level comp ...

, this is the only edition where a team ending outside of the top 2 at the end of league stage won an IPL title.

Format

Eight teams contested the season. Two teams,

and

, based in

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

and

Rajkot Rajkot () is the fourth-largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the ...

were new to the tournament, replacing the

and

franchises which had been suspended until 2018. The schedule for the tournament was published on 10 March 2016. The league stage, consisting of 56 matches, took place between 9 April and 22 May 2016. The top four teams qualified for the play-off stage, with the final being held in

on 29 May.

Background

On 14 July 2015, the RM Lodha committee suspended the owners of the

and

franchises for a period of two years on charges of spot-fixing and betting during the 2013 IPL season. This meant that the two teams could not play in the 2016 and 2017 IPL seasons. The

Board of Control of Cricket in India 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 ...

(BCCI) confirmed that two new teams will replace them for the next two seasons of the IPL. In October 2015,

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase, New York, Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the f ...

withdrew as the title sponsor of the IPL, terminating a five-year deal which was to end in 2017. Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo was awarded the title sponsorship for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. In November 2015, the BCCI shortlisted nine cities for the new franchises to be based in, leaving out

Jaipur Jaipur (; , ) is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the List of cities and towns in Rajasthan, largest city of the north-western States and union territories of India, Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had ...

(home of Rajasthan Royals) and

Kochi Kochi ( , ), List of renamed Indian cities and states#Kerala, formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the Ernakulam district, district of Ernakulam in the ...

(home of the now defunct

Kochi Tuskers Kerala Kochi Tuskers Kerala is a now defunct franchise cricket team that played in the Indian Premier League (IPL) representing the city of Kochi, Kerala, India. The team was one of two new franchises added to the IPL for the 2011 season, alongside ...

) for unknown reasons. The nine cities shortlisted were:

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

Cuttack Cuttack (, or officially Kataka in Odia language, Odia ), is the former capital, deputy capital and the 2nd largest city of the Indian state of Odisha. It is also the headquarters of the Cuttack district. The name of the city is an anglicised f ...

Dharamshala Dharamshala (, ; also spelled Dharamsala) is a town in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It serves as the winter capital of the state and the administrative headquarters of the Kangra district since 1855. The town also hosts the Tibeta ...

Indore Indore (; ISO 15919, ISO: , ) is the largest and most populous Cities in India, city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The commercial capital of the state, it has been declared as the List of cleanest cities in India, cleanest city of In ...

Nagpur Nagpur (; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Nāgapura'') is the second capital and third-largest city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is called the heart of India because of its central geographical location. It is the largest and most populated city i ...

Ranchi Ranchi (; ) is the capital city and also the largest district by population of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Ranchi was the centre of the Jharkhand movement, which called for a separate state for the tribal regions of South Bihar, northern ...

and

Visakhapatnam Visakhapatnam (; List of renamed places in India, formerly known as Vizagapatam, and also referred to as Vizag, Visakha, and Waltair) is the largest and most populous metropolitan city in the States and union territories of India, Indian stat ...

. The new franchises were allocated using a reverse auction process, with companies which bid the lowest share of the central revenue pool becoming the owners of the new teams. On 3 December, it was reported that twelve companies collected tender documents for the bidding process. On 8 December 2015, it was announced that New Rising, a company led by

Sanjiv Goenka Sanjiv Goenka (born 29 January 1961) is an Indian billionaire businessman and investor. He is the founder and chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, RPSG Group, headquartered in Kolkata. He also owns the Indian Premier League, IPL cricket team Luc ...

, and

Intex Technologies Intex Technologies is an Indian Multinational corporation, multinational technology company based in New Delhi, India that manufactures smartphones, consumer electronics, and other accessories. It also provides consumer electronic products such ...

had won the bidding rights to the two new teams. New Rising decided to have their team based in

while Intex chose

as the home of its team. The two franchises picked five players each from the squads of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals at a player draft on 15 December 2015. Each franchise was allocated a purse of 660 million to buy the players for their squad at the draft and players auction.

Maharashtra water crisis

On 6 April 2016, amid a severe drought situation in the state of

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

, in which three venues (Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur) were supposed to host a total of 20 IPL matches in the 2016 season, the

Bombay High Court The High Court of Bombay is the High courts of India, high court of the States and union territories of India, states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily ...

questioned the "criminal wastage" of water being supplied to the three stadiums in a response to a petition from the

Lok Satta Movement Lok Satta is a non-partisan movement for democratic reforms in the country of India, led by Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, a former I. A. S. officer and renowned activist from Andhra Pradesh, India. The movement was started in 1996 with the found ...

NGO.NGO challenges use of 60 lakh litres of water
''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'', 7 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-13. The drought was described as one of the "worst-ever droughts" to affect the state and was believed to be one of the worst droughts in 100 years.IPL ordered to relocate drought-hit Maharashtra matches
BBC News, 13 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-13. An estimated 6 million litres (6 million litres) of water were to be used at the three venues to maintain the pitches, with 4 million litres being used at the

Wankhede Stadium Wankhede Stadium (pronounced �aːnkʰeɖe is an international cricket stadium in Mumbai, India. It is owned and operated by the Mumbai Cricket Association and is the home ground of the Mumbai Indians. It houses the headquarters of the Boar ...

, the site of eight matches. The High Court filed a

public interest litigation The chief instrument through which judicial activism has flourished in India is public interest litigation (PIL) or social action litigation (SAL). It refers to litigation undertaken to secure public interest and demonstrates the availability ...

and suggested shifting matches to "some other state where water is in abundance." The High Court questioned 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 ...

about whether "people are more important or your IPL matches". The BCCI argued that the water being used at the venues was tanker water and not drinkable. On 8 April, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra

Devendra Fadnavis Devendra Gangadharrao Fadnavis (born 22 July 1970) is an Indian politician who is currently serving as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra since 5 December 2024 with Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar as his deputies, and previously held this positi ...

declared that potable water will not be supplied to the venues and added "even if IPL matches are shifted, we have no problem." On 9 April, hours before the season's opening match, the

Mumbai Cricket Association The Mumbai Cricket Association (formerly Bombay Cricket Association) is the governing body for cricket in Mumbai and surrounding regions such as Thane, Navi Mumbai. Its headquarters is situated at Wankhede Stadium in Churchgate. It governs M ...

claimed that the water being used at the Wankhede Stadium was bought from private operators and not

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), or the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) is the governing civic body of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra. Salman Khan Is Now Brand Ambassador of BMC from 2016. The BMC is India ...

. On 13 April, the Bombay High Court ruled that all the matches to be held in the state in May must be moved to venues outside of Maharashtra. A total of 13 matches were scheduled to be hosted by the three venues in Maharashtra in the month of May, including two playoff matches in Pune and the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

in Mumbai. The court later allowed a match scheduled for 1 May to take place in Pune due to logistical difficulties with moving the fixture."Bombay High Court allows May 1 match to be held in Pune"
ESPNcricinfo, 20 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-20. The Mumbai Cricket Association and the

Maharashtra Cricket Association The Maharashtra Cricket Association ( Marathi: महाराष्ट्र क्रिकेट संघटणा) is the governing body of the cricket in the Maharashtra state of India. Its Maharashtra cricket team represent Maharashtra stat ...

petitioned the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

against the High Court's ruling, filing a plea which stated that treated sewage water will be used instead of potable water. After 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 ...

selected

as their alternative venue, a petition was filed in the city which stated hosting IPL matches "will add unnecessary burden on the scarce natural resource." The

Rajasthan High Court The High Court of Rajasthan is located in Jodhpur and is the highest court in the Indian state, state of Rajasthan. It was established on 29 August 1949 under the ''Rajasthan High Court Ordinance, 1949''. Currently the Judiciary of India#Judge s ...

then questioned the state government and BCCI about shifting the matches to

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

, a region also hit by drought, scheduling the hearing for 27 April. There were reports of protests being held in Jaipur against the shifting of matches to the city. On 26 April the Supreme Court dismissed the petition against the Bombay High Court's ruling and confirmed that matches should be moved out of Maharashtra. The court had initially suggested that a series of regulations could be used to allow matches to go ahead under the condition that no drinkable water was used on the grounds, but opted to instead move the matches on the grounds that the suggested regulations would be complex and difficult to enforce. On 29 April, it was announced that all league stage matches scheduled to be held after 1 May in Mumbai and Pune were shifted to the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in

. Two playoff matches scheduled to be held in Pune were shifted to Delhi and three

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 ...

home matches supposed to be held in Nagpur were shifted to their primary home venue, Mohali. The

in Bangalore, which was scheduled to host the Qualifier 1, was also announced as the host of the Final.

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony was held on 8 April 2016 from 19:30 IST at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium in Mumbai. It featured performances from

Major Lazer Major Lazer is an American electronic dance music and DJ trio, which includes record producer Diplo, and DJs Walshy Fire and Ape Drums. They were founded in 2008 by Diplo and Switch, with Switch leaving after three years in 2011. He was the ...

Yo Yo Honey Singh Hirdesh "Honey" Singh (born 15 March 1983), known professionally as Yo Yo Honey Singh, is an Indian singer, rapper and record producer, music producer who commenced his career as a hip-hop record producer, music producer in 2003 with his unde ...

Ranveer Singh Ranveer Singh Bhavnani (; born 6 July 1985) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Ranveer Singh, several awards, including five Filmfare Awards. He is among the highest- ...

Katrina Kaif Katrina Kaif (; born Katrina Rosemary Turcotte, 16 July 1983) is a British actress who works in Hindi-language films. One of the highest-paid actresses in India, she has received numerous accolades, including four Screen Awards and four Zee C ...

Jacqueline Fernandez Jacqueline Genevieve Fernandez (born 11 August 1985) is a Sri Lankan actress based in India. She has worked in Indian films, predominantly in Hindi, besides appearing in reality shows and music videos. Fernandez was born and raised in Bahrain. ...

among others.

Dwayne Bravo Dwayne John Bravo (born 7 October 1983) is a Trinidadian retired cricketer, a former captain of the West Indies cricket team and the current mentor of Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League. Prior to that, he served as a bowling c ...

, a member of the West Indies'

2016 World Twenty20 The 2016 ICC World Twenty20 was the sixth edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, formerly known as the ICC World Twenty20, a Twenty20 International cricket tournament that was held in India from 8 March to 3 April 2016, and was the first edi ...

winning team, performed the "Champion Dance", which, according to the IPL chairman

Rajeev Shukla Rajeev Shukla (born 13 September 1959) is an Indian politician, former journalist, political commentator and the former chairman of Indian Premier League. In 2015, he was re-appointed unanimously as the Chairman of IPL by the BCCI. On 18 Decem ...

, was supposed to be the "special attraction" of the ceremony.

Venues

Ten venues were selected to host the league stage matches.

hosted Qualifier 1,

was scheduled to host the Eliminator match and Qualifier 2 and

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 scheduled to host the final. The drought situation in

led to a ruling in the

that games to be played in the state, including in Pune and Mumbai, in May would have to be moved to other regions to allow water supplies to be prioritised. On 29 April 2016, the IPL Governing Council announced that all homes games of the Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants after 2 May 2016, would be held at

. The Eliminator and Qualifier 2 would to be held at

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

, and the final at

. On 2 May 2016, it was announced that Gujarat Lions would play two of their matches on 19 and 21 May at

Kanpur Kanpur (Hindustani language, Hindustani: ), originally named Kanhapur and formerly anglicized as Cawnpore, is the second largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Uttar Pradesh after Lucknow. It was the primary ...

Personnel changes

Each franchise was able to retain players from the previous season of the tournament, with their salaries automatically deducted from the franchise's available salary purse. The new teams were able to draft five players each from the two suspended franchises. Players were able to be traded during the trading windows and new players could be added to the teams at the 2016 IPL players auction held on 6 February 2016.

Teams and standings

Points table

Match summary

League stage

Match results

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Playoffs

Preliminary

Qualifier 1

----

Eliminator

----

Qualifier 2

----

Final

Statistics and awards

Most runs

* The player with the most runs at the end of the tournament received the

Orange Cap The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a Twenty20 cricket competition based in India. The tournament honours players with several awards at the end of each season. These include the Orange Cap, Purple Cap, Maximum Sixes Award, Most Valuable Player an ...

. * Source: ESPNcricinfo

Most wickets

* The player with the most wickets at the end of the tournament received the Purple Cap. * Source: ESPNcricinfo

Special awards

* Source:

Reception

Television viewing

The first six matches of the season recorded an average Television Viewership Rating (TVR) of 3.50, significantly less than the average TVR of 4.50 for the first week of the 2015 IPL season. It was the second lowest TVR recorded in the opening week of any IPL season, with only the 2014 season with a rating below this.

Attendance

According to a report in the '' Economic Times'', the season's opening matches at Delhi, Mohali and Kolkata had an average attendance of 60% each, while the first game at Hyderabad had a 50% crowd turnout. The low attendance figures were attributed to "an overdose of Twenty20 cricket and scorching heat". After Bangalore had low attendances in the first two matches at the venue, ticket prices were reduced. Average home attendances: *Kolkata Knight Riders 52,800 *Delhi Daredevils 32,800 *Chennai Super Kings 30,400 *Royal Challengers Bangalore 28,000 *Mumbai Indians 26,486 *Sunrisers Hyderabad 26,400 *Kings XI Punjab 20,800 *Rajasthan Royals 18,548

References

External links

Series home on ESPNcricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Indian Premier League, 2016 2016 in Indian cricket