The2012 Indian Premier League season, abbreviated asIPL 5 or theIPL 2012 or theDLF IPL 2012 (owing to title sponsorship reasons),^[1] was the fifth season of theIndian Premier League, initiated by theBoard of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)^[2] in 2007 with thefirst season played in 2008. The tournament began on 4 April and ended on 27 May 2012.^[3]Kolkata Knight Riders were the winning team, beating defending championsChennai Super Kings by five wickets in the final.^[4] This season the number of teams in the league went from ten to nine with the termination ofKochi Tuskers Kerala.^[5]

Despite a slow start, IPL 5 earned a higher^[6] cumulative viewership than any previous edition of the IPL.^[7] The cumulative reach for 74 IPL 5 matches was recorded at 163 million against 162 million for 73 matches in IPL 4, and the final match had a higher reach than any previous final.^[7] The IPL 2012 edition was the most competitive season of which produced many nail biting finishes. In the 2012 season, there were 19 matches which produced results in the last over, and a couple of them produced results in the last ball. There were also 6 matches in which team won by a margin of less than 10 runs.^[8][9] Near the end of the season, the season faced various hurdles including a spot fixing case, which allegedly included 5 players caught on asting operation carried on by a local news channel.^[10]

The top four teams of the tournament (Kolkata Knight Riders,Chennai Super Kings,Delhi Daredevils andMumbai Indians) represented India in the2012 Champions League Twenty20. The Fair Play Award was won byRajasthan Royals, whileKings XI Punjab batsmanMandeep Singh was named the tournament's "Rising Star" and^[11] Kolkata Knight Riders bowlerSunil Narine was Player of the Season.^[12] This along with 2009, 2016, and 2021 are the only editions where a team topping the table at the end of league stage did not appear in the final.

The IPL Committee terminated theKochi Tuskers Kerala franchise after it breached theBCCI's terms of conditions. Under the terms of the agreement, each franchise has to submit a bank guarantee every year that covers the fee payable to the BCCI. The team, founded in 2010, was bought for₹ 1,550 crore and the consortium has to pay a bank guarantee of₹ 1.56 billion every year until 2020.^[13] Despite this, the Tuskers' former players participated in this season's competition after being included in theplayers auction on 4 February 2012.

On 13 January, theBCCI asked the international players ofKochi Tuskers Kerala to register the individual court cases against the owners of the Kochi IPL team with the BCCI included as a party to each case.^[14]

Chennai	Mumbai	Pune	Kolkata
Chennai Super Kings	Mumbai Indians	Pune Warriors India	Kolkata Knight Riders
M. A. Chidambaram Stadium	Wankhede Stadium	Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium	Eden Gardens
Capacity: 70,000	Capacity: 45,000	Capacity: 55,000	Capacity: 1,00,000
Mohali	Chennai Mumbai Mohali Kolkata Bangalore Dharamsala Jaipur Pune Delhi Hyderabad Visakhapatnam Cuttack		Bangalore
Kings XI Punjab			Royal Challengers Bangalore
PCA Stadium			M. Chinnaswamy Stadium
Capacity: 30,000			Capacity: 55,000
Hyderabad			Delhi
Deccan Chargers			Delhi Daredevils
Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium			Feroz Shah Kotla
Capacity: 55,000			Capacity: 48,000
Visakhapatnam	Jaipur	Cuttack	Dharamsala
Deccan Chargers	Rajasthan Royals	Deccan Chargers	Kings XI Punjab
ACA-VDCA Stadium	Sawai Mansingh Stadium	Barabati Stadium	HPCA Stadium
Capacity: 35,000	Capacity: 30,000	Capacity: 45,000	Capacity: 23,000

The opening ceremony was held on 3 April night in Chennai at the YMCA Ground. The ceremony included some performances byAmitabh Bachchan,Priyanka Chopra,Kareena Kapoor,Salman Khan,Prabhu Deva,Colonial Cousins, andKaty Perry.^[15] The opening game was held in theM. A. Chidambaram Stadium,Chennai, the home venue of the reigning championsChennai Super Kings. The closing ceremony was also held at the same venue.^[16]

Prabhu Deva

Priyanka Chopra

Kareena Kapoor

Salman Khan

Celebrities performing at the 5th IPL opening ceremony atChennai

• The top four teams qualified for the playoffs
• C refers to the eventual winners of the tournament, RU to the runners-up

On 15 March, it was announced that due to the municipal election in Delhi, the playoff schedule was being slightly altered.^[25] The sites of 22 and 23 May matches were changed, withPune now hosting the first qualifier on 22 May andBengaluru hosting the eliminator on 23 May. Had theRoyal Challengers Bangalore qualified for the playoffs, they would play the match in Bengaluru, switching which venue hosts which match if necessary.^[26]

Overall, 22,453runs were scored at anaverage of 26.20. 857wickets fell. Both the number of runs and of wickets were new IPL records.^[27] Six centuries were scored.

  The leading run scorer of the league phase wore an orange cap while fielding.

  The leading wicket taker of the league phase wore a purple cap while fielding.

The first matches of the season had recorded an averageTelevision Viewership Rating (TVR) of 3.76, 18.7% less than the previous season.^[30] The viewership was also reportedly low for the opening ceremony with a rating of 1.3 TVR.^[31] The decline was attributed to the number of matches being played, as the count stands at 76 among 9 teams.^[32] The rating continued to fall as the cumulative number of people who tuned in to watch the first 16 games also declined from 127.40 million in 2011 to 122.44 million.

However, despite this slow start, IPL 5 garnered a higher cumulative viewership than any previous edition of the IPL.^[7] The cumulative reach for 74 IPL 5 matches was recorded at 163 million against 162 million for 73 matches in IPL 4, and the final match had a higher reach than any previous final.^[7]

On 14 May 2012, an Indian news channelIndia TV aired a sting operation that accused five players involved inspot fixing. Reacting to the news, Chief manager of Indian Premier LeagueRajiv Shukla immediately suspended all five:^[10]Mohnish Mishra,Shalabh Srivastava,TP Sudhindra,Amit Yadav, andAbhinav Bali (none of whom had played international cricket).^[33] However, the report went on to claim that none of the cricketers were found guilty. On the reliability of the report,Rajat Sharma, the editor-in-chief of news channelIndia TV quoted that the channel had no doubts about the authenticity of the sting operation and prepared to go to court.^[34]

Mohnish Mishra who was part of Pune Warriors India team for the season, admitted to have said that franchises pay black money, in a sting operation. Mishra was caught on tape saying that franchisees paid them black money and that he had received₹15 million (US$170,000) from the later, among which₹12 million (US$140,000)^[35] was black money.^[36][37] He was also suspended from his team.^[38]

• 9 April:Sharukh Khan, owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders, was served a notice by the Rajasthan Police for smoking in public. Khan was caught smoking on camera during a match between the Kolkata Knight Riders, the IPL team he owns, and the Rajasthan Royals on 8 April.^[39]
• 16 May:Shahrukh Khan, owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders, received a five-year ban from theWankhede Stadium for arguing with security at the ground after a match.^[40]
• 18 May:Luke Pomersbach, aRoyal Challengers Bangalore batsman, was arrested on charges ofmolesting an American woman.^[41] He was later granted interim bail.^[42]
• 20 May:Rahul Sharma andWayne Parnell,Pune Warriors India players, were detained byMumbai Police along with hundreds at arave party bust.^[43][44]

• List of 2012 Indian Premier League personnel changes
• 2012 Champions League Twenty20

• Tournament site on ESPNcricinfo

• 2012 Indian Premier League
• 2012 in Indian cricket
• Domestic cricket competitions in 2011–12

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• Accuracy disputes from June 2012
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