How the IPL Works
The auction, the playoffs and why a domestic Indian league became the financial centre of world cricket.
Written by the Scoresque editors. Last updated 2026-08-27.
The Indian Premier League is a domestic T20 competition that has become the most consequential event in cricket's calendar, financially and increasingly tactically. Whether you follow it or not, understanding how it works explains much of what happens in the modern game.
The basics
Ten city-based franchises play a double round-robin-ish league phase across roughly two months, usually late March to the end of May, followed by playoffs. Matches are standard T20: twenty overs a side, three hours, evening start times built for television.
The playoff format rewards finishing in the top two. Qualifier 1 matches first against second, with the winner going straight to the final; the loser gets a second life against the winner of the Eliminator (third versus fourth) in Qualifier 2. No other major cricket competition gives the top two a safety net like this, and it makes league position matter to the last round.
The auction: cricket's most-watched spreadsheet
IPL squads are built by auction, not transfer. Players register, franchises bid live, and each franchise operates under a salary cap (the purse). Before big auctions, franchises may retain a limited number of existing players, at fixed deductions from their purse, and use right-to-match cards to buy back released players at the winning bid.
Two auction quirks shape everything. First, overseas players are capped at four in a starting eleven, so overseas stars compete with each other for scarce slots and Indian players carry premium value. Second, because purses are equal, squad building is a genuine strategy game, and the auction room, not the field, is where several titles have effectively been won.
Why the money is so big
The IPL sells the broadcast rights to the world's largest cricket audience in prime time. Its media-rights deals put it, per match, among the most valuable sports properties on earth, behind only the NFL by some measures. That income flows to franchises, to the Indian board, and to players: top auction prices exceed two million dollars for a two-month season, which is why virtually every available international star enters.
The consequences ripple outward. Boards schedule international cricket around the IPL window. Players increasingly weigh national contracts against franchise income. And the franchises themselves have bought teams in leagues across the world, building multi-team global groups.
What it changed about cricket itself
The IPL industrialised T20 skill development: specialist death bowling, range hitting, match-up analytics and impact-substitute tactics matured there before spreading to international cricket. A generation of players from every country has now grown up sharing dressing rooms with rivals, which coaches credit with accelerating tactical exchange, and the league's scouting network surfaces Indian talent with remarkable speed.
Criticisms exist and are serious: workload concerns, the squeeze on Test cricket, and the concentration of power in one board's hands. But no honest account of the modern game can leave the IPL out of the centre of it.
Our cricket hub carries live coverage during the season, and the news desk follows the auctions, records and title races.