Cricket is a game of many forms. At the international level, there is Test Cricket (5 days, theoretically 450 overs for the match and two innings per team), One Day Internationals (1 day, 50 overs per team, one innings per team) and the new sensation Twenty20 cricket (1 day, 20 overs per team, one innings per team). Google it if you don’t understand the rules!
The latest thing in cricket has been the formation of the Indian Premier League (IPL); a new Twenty20 competition, with 8 franchises being sold off by the governing body for Indian cricket, the Cricket Control Board of India (the BCCI). This competition is yet to play a game but is the ‘official’ response to a rebel league, the Indian Champions League (ICL). The IPL is officially sanctioned by the international governing body for cricket, the International Cricket Council (ICC), whereas players who have been engaged by the ICL have been blacklisted by the ICC.
The IPL is different to most elite-level cricket competitions in that the teams are fielded by franchises that have been created and sold to private owners by the BCCI, rather than being teams fielded governing bodies that are representative of a particular city or geo-political entity. The extension of this point is that the IPL is actively recruiting the best playing talent from around the cricketing world and teams are not filled with players who meet a nationalality or residency requirement.
Here is a useful link to a page from the website CricInfo, it will explain the basics of the IPL, with a wealth of stories available here. It’s of interest today as the eight franchises are engaged in an auction of players for the new teams. More details will follow.
