2016 Indian Premier League

2016 Indian Premier League

The 2016 season of the Indian Premier League, abbreviated as IPL 9 or VIVO IPL 2016, is the ninth season of the IPL, a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. The tournament is being played between 9 April and 29 May 2016. The season has two new franchises, the Gujarat Lions and the Rising Pune Supergiants based in the cities of Rajkot and Pune respectively. These teams replaced the Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals, both of which have been suspended for two years up to the 2017 season.
The schedule for the season was announced on 10 March 2016. In all there will be 60 matches played across different venues in India, including 56 league stage matches and four play-off matches.
The 2016 season will be the first IPL season to use LED stumps. The number of IPL fan parks, which was 16 during the 2015 season, will be increased to 36 (including one fan park in New Jersey.
Background
On 14 July 2015, the RM Lodha committee suspended the owners of the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals 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.he Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed that two new teams will replace them for the next two seasons of the IPL.
In October 2015, PepsiCo withdrew as the title sponsor of the IPL, terminating a five-year deal which was to end in 2017. Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo Electronics 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 (home of Rajasthan Royals) and Kochi (home of the now defunctKochi Tuskers Kerala) for unknown reasons.The nine cities shortlisted were: Chennai, Cuttack, Dharamsala, Indore, Nagpur, Pune, Rajkot, Ranchi and Visakhapatnam. 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, and Intex Technologies had won the bidding rights to the two new teams. New Rising decided to have their team based in Pune while Intex chose Rajkot 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, 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 questioned the "criminal wastage" of water being supplied to the three stadiums in a response to a petition from the Lok Satta Movement NGO. The drought has been described as one of the "worst-ever droughts" to effect the state and is believed to be one of the worst droughts in 100 years. 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, the site of eight matches. The High Court filed a public interest litigation and suggested shifting matches to "some other state where water is in abundance." The High Court questioned the BCCI 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 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 claimed that the water being used at the Wankhede Stadium was bought from private operators and not Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
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 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.
The Mumbai Cricket Association and the Maharashtra Cricket Association petitioned the Supreme Court 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 selected Jaipur 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 then questioned the state government and BCCI about shifting the matches to Rajasthan, 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 Visakhapatnam. Two playoff matches scheduled to be held in Pune were shifted to Delhi and three Kings XI Punjab home matches supposed to be held in Nagpur were shifted to their primary home venue, Mohali. The M. Chinnaswamy Stadium 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, Yo Yo Honey Singh, Ranveer Singh, Katrina Kaif, Jacqueline Fernandez among others. Dwayne Bravo, a member of the West Indies' 2016 World Twenty20 winning team, performed the "Champion Dance", which, according to the IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla, was supposed to be the "special attraction" of the ceremony.
Venues
Ten venues were selected to host the league stage matches. Bangalore will host Qualifier 1, Pune was scheduled to host the Eliminator match and Qualifier 2 and Mumbai was scheduled to host the Final. The drought situation in Maharashtra led to a ruling in the Bombay High Court 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 Visakhapatnam. On 2 May 2016, it was announced that Gujarat Lions will play two of their matches on 19 and 21 May at Kanpur.