The 2016 Indian Premier League season (also known as IPL 9, and branded as Vivo IPL 2016 for sponsorship reasons) was the ninth season of the Indian Premier League, a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. The season began on 9 April 2016 and concluded on 29 May 2016 with the playing of the finals match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.
Format
Eight teams contested the season. Two teams, Rising Pune Supergiants and Gujarat Lions, based in Pune and Rajkot were new to the tournament, replacing the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals franchises which had been suspended until 2018.
The schedule for the tournament was published on 10 March 2016. The league stage, consisting of 56 matches, took place between 9 April and 22 May 2016. The top four teams qualified for the play-off stage, with the final being held in Bangalore on 29 May.
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. The 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 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 defunct Kochi Tuskers Kerala) for unknown reasons. The nine cities shortlisted were: Chennai, Cuttack, Dharamshala, 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 was described as one of the "worst-ever droughts" to affect the state and was 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 hosted 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. The Eliminator and Qualifier 2 would to be held at Delhi, and the final at Bangalore. On 2 May 2016, it was announced that Gujarat Lions would play two of their matches on 19 and 21 May at Kanpur.
Personnel changes
Each franchise was able to retain players from the previous season of the tournament, with their salaries automatically deducted from the franchise's available salary purse. The new teams were able to draft five players each from the two suspended franchises. Players were able to be traded during the trading windows and new players could be added to the teams at the 2016 IPL players auction held on 6 February 2016.
Match summary
Note: Results listed are according to the home (horizontal) and visitor (vertical) teams., Note: Click on a result to see a summary of the match.
Note: The total points at the end of each group match are listed., Note: Click on the points (group matches) or W/L (playoffs) to see the match summary.
Match results
Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bat.
Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to field.
Gujarat Lions won the toss and elected to field.
Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and elected to field.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to field.
Rising Pune Supergiants won the toss and elected to bat.
Delhi Daredevils won the toss and elected to field.
Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and elected to bat.
Gujarat Lions won the toss and elected to field.
Rising Pune Supergiants won the toss and elected to bat.
Delhi Daredevils won the toss and elected to field.
Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and elected to field.
Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to field.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to field.
Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and elected to field.
Rising Pune Supergiants won the toss and elected to field.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to field.
Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and elected to field.
Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and elected to bat.
Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to field.
Kings XI Punjab won the toss and elected to field.
Rising Pune Supergiants won the toss and elected to field. , Rain delayed the start of play by an hour. , Rain stopped play during the Rising Pune Supergiants innings and reduced Pune's target to 61 off 11 overs.
Delhi Daredevils won the toss and elected to field. , Rishabh Pant (Delhi Daredevils) made his Twenty20 debut.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to field.
Gujarat Lions won the toss and elected to field. , Shivil Kaushik (Gujarat Lions) made his Twenty20 debut.
Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to field.
Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and elected to field. , Rain delayed the start of play by an hour.
Gujarat Lions won the toss and elected to field.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to field.
Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to field.
Delhi Daredevils won the toss and elected to field.
Kings XI Punjab won the toss and elected to field.
Rising Pune Supergiants won the toss and elected to field.
Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and elected to field.
Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and elected to field.
Delhi Daredevils won the toss and elected to field.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to field.
Gujarat Lions won the toss and elected to field.
Kings XI Punjab won the toss and elected to field.
Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and elected to bat.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to field.
Delhi Daredevils won the toss and elected to field.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bat.
Gujarat Lions won the toss and elected to field. , The 229-run partnership between Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers is the highest partnership for any wicket in T20 cricket history. , It was the first instance of two batsmen scoring hundreds in the same match in the IPL, and the second overall instance in a T20 match.
Rising Pune Supergiants won the toss and elected to bat. , Rain stopped the Rising Pune Supergiants innings with 18 overs completed and reduced Kolkata Knight Riders' target to 66 off 9 overs. , Rising Pune Supergiants were eliminated as a result of this match.
Kings XI Punjab won the toss and elected to bat. , Kings XI Punjab were eliminated as a result of this match.
Delhi Daredevils won the toss and elected to field.
Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and elected to field.
Rising Pune Supergiants won the toss and elected to field. , Rain stopped play twice during the Rising Pune Supergiants innings and reduced Pune's target to 58 off 11 overs.
Kings XI Punjab won the toss and elected to field. , Rain delayed the start of play by two hours and reduced the match to 15 overs per side. , Rain stopped play during the Kings XI Punjab innings and reduced Punjab's target to 203 off 14 overs.
Gujarat Lions won the toss and elected to field.
Delhi Daredevils won the toss and elected to field.
Kings XI Punjab won the toss and elected to bat.
Gujarat Lions won the toss and elected to field. , Gujarat Lions and Sunrisers Hyderabad qualified for the playoffs and Gujarat Lions advanced to Qualifier 1.
Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and elected to field. , Kolkata Knight Riders qualified for the playoffs and Mumbai Indians were eliminated as a result of this match.
Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and elected to field. , Royal Challengers Bangalore qualified for the playoffs and advanced to Qualifier 1, and Delhi Daredevils were eliminated as a result of this match.
Preliminary
Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and elected to field.
Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to field.
Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and elected to field.
Final
Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and elected to bat. , This was the maiden IPL title for Sunrisers Hyderabad and the 2nd IPL Title for an Hyderabadi Franchise.
Most runs
The player with the most runs at the end of the tournament received the Orange Cap. , Source: ESPNcricinfo
Most wickets
The player with the most wickets at the end of the tournament received the Purple Cap. , Source: ESPNcricinfo
Television viewing
The first six matches of the season recorded an average Television Viewership Rating (TVR) of 3.50, significantly less than the average TVR of 4.50 for the first week of the 2015 IPL season. It was the second lowest TVR recorded in the opening week of any IPL season, with only the 2014 season with a rating below this.
Attendance
According to a report in the Economic Times, the season's opening matches at Delhi, Mohali and Kolkata had an average attendance of 60% each, while the first game at Hyderabad had a 50% crowd turnout. The low attendance figures were attributed to "an overdose of Twenty20 cricket and scorching heat". After Bangalore had low attendances in the first two matches at the venue, ticket prices were reduced.
Average home attendances:
Kolkata Knight Riders 52,800 , Delhi Daredevils 32,800 , Chennai Super Kings 30,400 , Royal Challengers Bangalore 28,000 , Mumbai Indians 26,486 , Sunrisers Hyderabad 26,400 , Kings XI Punjab 20,800 , Rajasthan Royals 18,548
