The BCCI, Cricket world's richest board, set up IPL in 2008 when Sharad Pawar was its president with the help of Lalit Modi to counter rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL). The ICL was the brainchild of businessman Subhash Chandra Goel who made legendary cricketer Kapil Dev its head and started a T-20 league in 2007. It attracted a large number of foreign players but before it could consolidate itself, the BCCI stepped in. With Pawar at its helm, the BCCI refused to recognise the ICL as it thought that Goel and Kapil Dev were planning to challenge its monopoly. The Indian board even dictated the International Cricket Council (ICC) to impose a ban on the ICL.

This was the start of BCCI's muscle flexing in ICC affairs and other members were left with no choice but to accept what the Indian board wanted because they just could not match its financial clout. Such was the BCCI's influence that ICC and other boards banned all those players, who were the part of the ICL, from representing their respective countries.

The ICL struggled for survival for two years but then died unsung and unheralded much to the delight of the BCCI. But the fact remains that when the BCCI launched the IPL in 2008, nobody, including Lalit Modi, in their wildest dreams ever imagined that it would be such a financial success. At 46 Lalit Modi was appointed chairman of the IPL for five years till 2012; he later appointed himself as a commissioner of the league.

After two years of dazzling success, it was decided to add two more teams to the IPL to make it a ten-team league from 2011. And on March 21, 2010, described as the land mark day for Indian cricket, two new teams  Pune (led by Sahara India group) and Kochi from the south  made their entry to the high voltage league (IPL) offering a combined total of $703 million. The Sahara group led by Subrata Roy bid $370m, with Kochi Rendezvous blessed by junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoor bidding $333.33m to emerge winners in an auction in which the base price was a mere $225m.

Two years ago eight franchises made successful bids to become part of the IPL in an auction that fetched BCCI $723.59m against a total base price of $400m. This year IPL also became the first sporting event ever to be broadcast live on the YouTube website, taking the league's brand value to an estimated $4.13 billion.

According to a global sports salaries review, IPL is the second highest-paying league, second only to the NBA of the USA. It is calculated that the average salary of an IPL player over a year is £2.5 million. This year's auction was earlier slated to be held on March 7 but was postponed for a fortnight after the bidding parties and the BCCI objected to stiff conditions. An unknown consortium called Rendezvous Sports World Ltd surprised all, including IPL chairman Lalit Modi, with their stunning second highest bid for the team to bring the southern state of Kerala on the cricketing map. 'To be honest, I'm surprised by the bid amounts,' Modi later told the media.

The combined amount of the two bids  Pune and Kochi  was at least 25 percent more than the combined bid for the eight teams purchased in the first round of team formation in 2008. The Kerala team had the backing of Tharoor who was described as its 'guiding angel' though Tharoor preferred to call himself 'just a mentor,' Tharoor, a former under secretary general of the United Nations, was India's nominee for the UN secretary general's post but lost. However, he made a triumphant debut in national politics, entering the Lok Sabha from Trivandrum on Congress ticket. He was promptly made a minister in the Manmohan Singh's government but has since resigned over Kochi's controversial bid to join IPL.

Not much is known about the Kerala group. 'Most of its investors are Gujaratis. Some are from Kerala, other parts of India and some from abroad,' said Vivek Venugopal, one of the partners of the consortium.

The sheer volume of the bids by eleven parties in the fray for two IPL slots has not only stunned the business and sporting community in the country but left those who failed to get the entry seething with anger, frustration and revenge.

After the auction, IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi, now suspended, in sheer exuberance said that there was no recession in IPL. Another statement attributed to him said that IPL would soon overtake the English Premier League in terms of money, sponsorship and what have you. Everybody lapped up these statements and hailed Lalit Modi as the man with the midas touch who could do no wrong. The media went overboard in praising the IPL. The India Today magazine called it as a 'heady cocktail of sports, entertainment and business which refuses to get a hangover'.

The powerful backers of Modi and he himself did not relish the arrival of Tharoor in their midst as they wanted one of their own teams in the IPL. Modi lost the plot here as he twitted on his blog giving the name of the stake holders of the Kochi Rendezvous, which included Sunanda Pushkar, a socialite Kashmiri woman based in Dubai. Pushkar, according to Modi, was offered 'sweat equity' to the tune of 70 crore rupees ($16m) leading to allegations that she got it because of her closeness to Tharoor.

It was also alleged that Sharad Pawar and another federal minister from his NCP party, Praful Patel, wanted some other franchise and were upset with Kochi's successful bid. Though they failed to get rid of Kochi, the controversy raised such a furore that Tharoor was forced to resign. The political storm that followed has since shaken the IPL edifice to its roots, with the BCCI scurrying for cover.

The Income-Tax officials and enforcement sleuths soon started chasing the franchises and suddenly Lalit Modi became a pariah with IPL facing allegations of money laundering, tax evasion and everything which is evil.
 
The BCCI has since charged Lalit Modi with 'alleged acts of individual misdemeanours', and given him 15 days to reply. The governing council of the IPL has appointed industrialist Chirayu Amin as its interim chief.

As part of the international fallout the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had a grouse because the first IPL edition coincided with the County Championship season as well as New Zealand's tour of England. The ECB threatened to create its own Twenty-20 tournament and it sought the help of Texas billionaire Allen Stanford to launch the proposed league. But before Stanford could plan the league he was arrested on charges of financial irregularities, forcing the ECB to terminate its ties with Stanford.

The IPL has survived that challange but the ECB has not forgotten that humiliation. Then there was the problem with Cricket Australia over player availability for the 2008 tour of the West Indies and CA's desire for global protection of their sponsors. Other boards  West Indies (WICB) and New Zealand (NZCB)  also raised concerns over the impact of IPL on their player development plans and their already fragile financial situation.

However, the power of money prevailed and all the boards gave in to the IPL because they realised that they were not in a position to hold back their players who were lured by huge amounts of money offered by the IPL.

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