Peterson, Flintoff heads contracts

NEW DELHI, April 15, 2009 (AFP) - The Indian Premier League, a property of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), is a Twenty20 tournament contested by eight teams aligned to rich franchises, who purchased the world's leading cricketers for millions of dollars at an auction to play for them. Each team plays the other twice in a round-robin league with the top four teams qualifying for the semi-finals. There are 59 matches, including the semi-finals and final.

Television rights:

Ahead of the IPL's first season last year, a joint bid by India's Sony TV network and Singapore-based World Sports Group secured the global broadcasting rights for 1.026 billion dollars for a 10-year period.
The deal was re-negotiated this year after the IPL cancelled the Sony-WSG deal citing poor production quality. But in an out-of-court settlement, Sony-WSG won back the rights after agreeing to pay 1.63 billion dollars for the next nine years till 2017.Dollars paid by individuals and groups at an auction in January, 2008 to buy the eight teams:

* 111.9 million by industrialist Mukesh Ambani for Mumbai Indians.
* 111.6 million by liquor and airline tycoon Vijay Mallya for Bangalore Royal Challengers.
* 107 million by newspaper group Deccan Chronicle for the Hyderabad-based Deccan Chargers.
* 91 million by BCCI secretary and businessman N. Srinivasan for Chennai Super Kings
* 84 million by business group GMR Holdings to buy Delhi Daredevils.
* 76 million by Bollywood star Preity Zinta and her friends for Kings XI Punjab.
* 75 million by Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan for Kolkata Knight Riders.
* 67 million by Emerging Media group, partly owned by Lachlan Murdoch, for Rajasthan Royals.

Rev. sharing model

The BCCI will give out 54 percent of the revenue earned every year from the IPL to the franchises, six percent is put aside as prize money and 40 percent goes into the cricket board's coffers.
The franchises can generate funds separately through team sponsorships and gate revenues.
IPL tax obligations:
The Indian government earned 910 million rupees (approx 18.2 million dollars) as tax revenue from last year's IPL season.

Top IPL earners (per season, in dollars):

1.55 million - Kevin Pietersen (ENG) - Bangalore Royal Challengers
1.55 million - Andrew Flintoff (ENG) - Chennai Super Kings
1.50 million - Mahendra Singh Dhoni (IND) - Chennai Super Kings
1.35 million - Andrew Symonds (AUS) - Deccan Chargers
975,000 - Sanath Jayasuriya (SRI) - Mumbai Indians
950,000 - Ishant Sharma (IND) - Kolkata Knight Riders
950,000 - Jean-Paul Duminy (RSA) - Mumbai Indians
925,000 - Irfan Pathan (IND) - Kings XI Punjab
900,000 - Jacques Kallis (RSA) - Bangalore Royal Challengers
900,000 - Brett Lee (AUS) - Kings XI Punjab
850,000 - Harbhajan Singh (IND) - Mumbai Indians

Note: Players not available for the entire tournament are paid on a pro-rata basis per match.
India's 'icon' players:
Five Indian stars were given 'icon' status and were not put up for auction last year, thereby ensuring they played for their 'home' teams. They earned 15 percent more than the highest-paid player in their respective teams:

Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai Indians) - 1.12 million dollars
Sourav Ganguly (Kolkata Knight Riders) - 1.09 million dollars
Yuvraj Singh (Kings XI Punjab) - 1.06 million dollars
Rahul Dravid (Bangalore Royal Challengers) - 1.03 million dollars
Virender Sehwag (Delhi Daredevils) - 833,750 dollars

Prize money:

Winner: 960,000 dollars Runners-up: 480,000 dollars
Losing semi-finalists: 240,000 dollars. Fifth-placed team: 160,000 dollars Sixth--placed team: 140,000 dollars
Seventh-placed team: 100,000 dollars. Eighth-placed team: 80,000 dollars