The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as the TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's Twenty20 (T20) cricket league held annually in India. Founded by the BCCI in 2007, the league features ten city-based franchise teams. The IPL usually takes place during the summer, between March and May each year. It has an exclusive window in the ICC Future Tours Programme, resulting in fewer international cricket tours occurring during the IPL seasons.
A match during the 2008 IPL inaugural season in Chennai
Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innings each, which is restricted to a maximum of twenty overs. Together with first-class and List A cricket, Twenty20 is one of the three current forms of cricket recognised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as being at the highest international or domestic level.
Lasith Malinga bowling to Shahid Afridi in the 2009 T20 World Cup Final at Lord's, London.
Former England batsman Andrew Strauss batting for Middlesex against Surrey
Crowd during a match of the 2015 IPL season in Hyderabad, India
Twenty20 matches can have some exciting displays, such as when the batsmen run out to the pitch