Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 Cricket has a number of rules attached to it, mainly to make the game more interesting for the audience.

IPL Rules

Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 Cricket was created as well as promoted for the purpose of providing entertainment to the viewers. It is with a view on this aims only that many rules have been devised for it. Some of the IPL rules have been changed after the first season, while others continue to be the same, with the possibility of undergoing an alteration in the future.

Players
The following rules apply in case of IPL teams and their composition:

There needs to be a minimum of 16 players in each of the eight teams.

Each team will have one physio and a coach.

At least two players in each team will be from BCCI under-22 pool.

A minimum of eight local players will be there in each team.

The number of foreign players in a team cannot exceed 10 (8 in the first season).

Amongst the playing 11 members of a team, no more than four can be foreign players.

Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag are the players with ‘icon status’.

Acquiring Players
The owners of a team can acquire players from any of the following options:

Through annual auction

Buying domestic players

Signing uncapped players

Buying Replacements (for players not available)

Trading

Revenue Distribution
All the revenues collected from the IPL series will be collected by a central pool, which will distribute it amongst league management and franchisees. At present, and till 2017, the distribution arrangement is - 54% for franchisees, 40% for IPL and rest 6% is the prize money. After 2017, the proportion will change to 45% for franchisees, 50% for IPL and 5% for prize money.

Rights (Title & Television)
The title rights for Indian Premier League T20 Cricket are with DLF, an Indian real estate developer. DLF received the rights to IPL title sponsorship at the cost of $50 million, for a period of five years. The television rights for the IPL Twenty20 Cricket are with Sony Entertainment Television Network and World Sport Group (Singapore). They secured the highest bid for broadcast rights at $1.026 million, for 10 years.

Other Rules

At least seven bowlers will be there for completing the 20 overs of a match.

Of the seven bowlers in the game, six will bowl 3 overs each and seventh one will bowl the remaining 2 overs.

For a match to be declared complete, full 40 overs should have been bowled and batted on.

The batting team can call all of their extra players to bat, till the end of 20th over. However, only the first 11 players have the right to bowl and/or field.

The batting team can continue to bat till the end of the last over, even if it has reached the winning target.