The2008 Indian Premier League season was the inaugural season of theIndian Premier League, established by theBCCI in 2007. The season commenced on 18 April 2008 with the final match was held on 1 June 2008.^[1] The competition started with adouble round robin league stage, in which each of the 8 teams played a home match and an away match against every other team. These matches were followed by two semi-finals and a final.^[2]

In a match which went down to the last ball,Rajasthan Royals defeatedChennai Super Kings in the final to win the title,^[3] withYusuf Pathan named the player of the match in the Finals andShane Watson adjudged the player of the tournament.^[4]Sohail Tanvir won the purple cap for being the top wicket-taking bowler whileShaun Marsh won the orange cap for leading run-scorer in the tournament. Shreevats Goswami was awarded the best under-19 player award and the special award for Fair Play was won by theCSK.

The auctions for team ownership was held on January 24, 2008.Mumbai was the most expensive team, costing overUS$111.9 million.^[5] For the inaugural IPL season, each team had a salary cap of US$5 million (Rs. 20 crore approx.).Sachin Tendulkar,Sourav Ganguly,Rahul Dravid,Yuvraj Singh andVirender Sehwag were classified asicon players. They played for the franchises representing their home towns and hence did not enter the auction. Few players were classified as marquee players and the teams which lost out on icon players were allowed one extra marquee player to be selected in the auction.^[6] The first auction was conducted on 20 February 2008 withMahendra Singh Dhoni winning the highest bid of US$1.5 million.Andrew Symonds was the most costly foreign player.^[7] A further second auction was held for few foreign players signed. Teams also signed players on individual basis.^[8]

Chennai	Mumbai	Mohali
Chennai Super Kings	Mumbai Indians	Kings XI Punjab
M. A. Chidambaram Stadium Capacity: 50,000	Wankhede Stadium Capacity: 45,000	PCA Stadium Capacity: 30,000
Kolkata	Bangalore	Navi Mumbai
Kolkata Knight Riders	Royal Challengers Bangalore	Mumbai Indians
Eden Gardens Capacity: 80,000	M. Chinnaswamy Stadium Capacity: 55,000	DY Patil Stadium Capacity: 55,000
Hyderabad	Delhi	Jaipur
Deccan Chargers	Delhi Daredevils	Rajasthan Royals
Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium Capacity: 55,000	Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium Capacity: 48,000	Sawai Mansingh Stadium Capacity: 30,000
Chennai Mumbai Mohali Kolkata Bangalore Navi Mumbai Hyderabad Delhi Jaipur

Points in the group stage were awarded as follows:

In the event of tied scores after both teams have faced their quota of overs, abowl-out will determine the winner, even in the group stage.^[9]

In the group stage, teams will be ranked on the following criteria:^[10]

1. Higher number of points
2. If equal, higher number of wins
3. If still equal,net run rate
4. If still equal, lowerbowling strike rate
5. If still equal, result of head-to-head meeting.

(C) = Eventual champion;(R) = Runner-up.

• Mumbai Indians 5 run outs in their innings is a record in the IPL^[11]

  The tournament's leading scorer wore an orange cap when fielding.^[12]

Full Table on ESPNcricinfo

  The tournament's leading wicket taker wore a purple cap when fielding.^[13]

Full Table on ESPNcricinfo

Note: Economy rate acts as a tie-breaker if players are level for most wickets.

The IPL received criticism from a few politicians and feminists for bringing in foreigncheerleaders, which was seen by many to not be in the traditional spirit of the game, as well as being against some Indian sensibilities.^[14] Two cheerleaders from London were asked to leave the ground at Mohali "because of the colour of their skin" by Wizcraft International Entertainment, which handled the team Kings XI Punjab. Ellesha Newton and Sherinne Anderson, both from London and of African ancestry were allegedly barred from entering the stadium by employees of Wizcraft International Entertainment on the pretext that "people don't like dark girls here".^[15] Both girls alleged that an employee referred to them with the racial slur "nigger".^[16]

The BCCI said a probe would be initiated by the IPL only if the two women officially complain to IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.

The BCCI and IPL officials later expressed surprised that the two cheerleaders did not complain about the alleged racist behaviour while they were in India and spoke about it only after they returned to London.

"We have not received any complaint from any cheerleaders that they were asked to leave by the Mohali-based Kings XI Punjab franchise recently because of the colour of their skin." BCCI joint secretary M. P. Pandove said in Mohali.^[17]

On 25 April 2008, following theKings XI Punjab's victory over theMumbai Indians atMohali, Kings XI Punjab playerSreesanth was slapped under his eye byHarbhajan Singh, the stand-in captain of Mumbai Indians. The incident came to light as Sreesanth was caught by TV cameras sobbing inconsolably on the field before the presentation ceremony. Sreesanth had since downplayed the incident saying he had no complaints against Singh who was "like an elder brother" to him. Singh's team had lost their third consecutive match, and he apparently reacted violently to Sreesanth's approaching him and reportedly saying "hard luck". The footage of the slap has not yet been released for public viewing. The BCCI launched an investigation into the incident and decided to ban Singh for the remaining 11 matches of his season.^{[18][19][20][21]}

• Official website
• ESPNcricinfo – Indian Premier League

• 2008 Indian Premier League
• 2008 in Indian cricket

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