Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL)

Countries	India
Administrator	TNCA
Format	Twenty20
First edition	2016
Latest edition	2024
Next edition	2025
Tournament format	Round Robin format with Group System and Playoffs
Number of teams	8
Current champion	Dindigul Dragons (1st title)
Most successful	Chepauk Super Gillies (4 titles)
Most runs	N Jagadeesan (2225)[1]
Most wickets	R Sai Kishore (75)[2]
TV	Star Sports (TV) Fancode (Internet)
Website	tnpl.cricket
2024 Tamil Nadu Premier League

The Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) is a men's Twenty20 (T20) cricket league that is annually held in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is organised by the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association and contested by eight city-based franchise teams. The inaugural season was held in 2016. It is usually played in July–August every year.

Dindigul Dragons is the defending champion, having won their first title in 2024. Chepauk Super Gillies is the most successful team with four titles.

In July 2015, the R M Lodha committee appointed by the Supreme Court, suspended the Chennai based Indian Premier League franchise Chennai Super Kings for a period of two years due to the association of their owners with illegal betting.^[3] As a result of the ban, there was no major competitive T20 cricket that was played in the state. The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) introduced plans for T20 cricket league for the Chennai first-division league teams to be played in May 2016. Following the same, the TNCA announced the inaugural edition of the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL).^[4] The league was aimed to make up for the absence of major T20 matches in the state that year and to serve as a platform for local players from the state.^[4][5]

The TNPL was proposed as an eight team event contested by city-based franchise teams.^[4] On 1 May 2016, the TNCA invited bidders for the franchise rights with the base price set at ₹12.5 million (US$150,000).^[6] About 17 bidders participated in the bidding process and the eight franchises were unveiled later by the TNCA.^[7] The franchise rights for the eight team were sold for ₹335.1 million (US$4.0 million) with the highest bid at ₹52.1 million (US$620,000).^[5][7][8]

In June 2016, the TNCA announced that the first season would consist of 27 matches to be played in August–September across three cities Chennai, Tirunelveli, and Dindigul with the player draft to be held in July.^[5][7] The player draft was held in Chennai on 30 July.^[9] On 16 August 2016, the first edition of the league was inaugurated by MS Dhoni and was played from 24 August to 18 September.^[10] The first edition featured international cricketers and other domestic cricketers registered with the TNCA.^[5][7]

During the inaugural season, the eight teams played every other team once and the top four qualified for the semifinals.^[7][11] Since the second season, a new system was introduced in which the eight teams played against each other in the league phase in round-robin format and the top four qualified for the playoffs. The playoffs consist of three matches – one eliminator and two qualifiers, followed by the final. The top two teams from the league phase play against each other in the first qualifier match with the winner progressing to the final. The loser would play against the winner of an eliminator match between the third and fourth-place teams from the league phase play in the second qualifier. The winner of this match would play the winner of the first qualifier for the title.^[12][13]

For the first season, each team was allowed a minimum of 17 players and a maximum of 19. There were 888 players classified into three price bands with the highest price was fixed at ₹0.5 million (US$6,000).^[9] The team with the highest bid during the franchise auction had the first right followed in order by the value of the bids and the process was repeated till the time a team exhausted its purse or refused to choose a player.^[9] For the subsequent season, the franchises retained the players and a short player draft were conducted to fill the vacant positions.^[14] For the 2018 season, the teams were allowed to retain three players and a new player draft was held with similar rules as the first draft.^[15] For the 2019 season, the teams were allowed to retain players from the previous season and were permitted a maximum of 22 players with at least two players from the districts represented by the franchise.^[16]

Ahead of the 2020 season, the franchises were allowed to retain three players each from the last season and a new player draft was held. The salary caps for the categories were also raised with the maximum cap set at ₹0.6 million (US$7,200).^[17][18][19]

Until 2020, the Board of Control for Cricket in India prevented TNCA from including outstation players in the league.^[20][21] For the fifth season, a maximum of two outstation players who were not part of the Indian Premier League, were permitted per team and a separate draft for the outstation players was held after the conclusion of the 2020 IPL season.^[22]

Ahead of the 2023 season, the TNCA introduced a new player auction replacing the draft system. Each team was given a purse of ₹7 million (US$84,000).^[23] For the 2024 season, teams were permitted a maximum of 20 players and were allowed to retain a set of players before the rest went into an auction.^[24] About 61 players were sold in the auction with the maximum bid at ₹2.2 million (US$26,000).^[25]

The franchises were sold to the highest bidders for a period of ten years and The TNCA had earned ₹335.1 million (US$4.0 million) in franchise rights.^[5][8] TNPL followed a similar business model to that of the IPL.^[26] For the first five years, about 80 percent of the central rights (broadcast fees and sponsorship) after excluding match staging fees, were shared amongst the eight franchises and the rest went to the TNCA. About 65 per cent was divided equally between the franchises and the rest was given to the franchises as per their standing in the league.^[8] Contrary to the IPL, gate collections were not shared with the franchises.^[26] To attract sponsors, owners were advised to name their teams after the districts in the state.^[6]

In May 2019, five of the franchises wrote to the TNCA regarding the financial difficulties faced by the franchises. The franchises expressed concerns regarding the lack of outstation players' participation, quality of umpiring, unavailability of players who represent India and matches being held in smaller venues, which affected the viewership for the league and the television rating points. The franchises reportedly suffered losses of up to ₹250 million (US$3.0 million) and suggested several changes including the inclusion of more outstation players and changes to the revenue-sharing model of the league.^[26][27][28] In response, the TNCA states that it already shares 80 per cent of the telecast and sponsorship fees with the franchises and gains only a net of ₹50 million (US$600,000) from the TNPL after meeting all expenses. However, some of the franchises were unsatisfied with the response and demanded an audit of the TNPL accounts.^[29]

From 2016 to 2019, India Cements owned the title rights of the league.^[30][31] A tender for new title rights sponsor was released in March 2020 and was awarded to the Shriram Group.^[32][33]

The winners of TNPL are awarded ₹10 million (US$120,000) with the runners-up receiving ₹6 million (US$72,000). The two semi-finalists are awarded ₹4 million (US$48,000) each with the remaining four teams receiving ₹2.5 million (US$30,000) each.^[5]

In 2016, Star India acquired the media rights for ₹71 million (US$850,000) for a minimum period of five years.^[5][8][34] The matches are telecast with commentaries in English and Tamil. Star also streamed the matches over its OTT platform, Disney+ Hotstar till 2021.^[35] For the 2022 season, the digital rights were sold to Viacom18 and FanCode became the streaming partner since the 2023 season.^[36]

Eight franchises are competing in the league. The franchises are named after a city it is representing in the state.^[6][5] Each team can have a maximum of 20 players that includes two outstation players.^[24]

Chepauk Super Gillies

Dindigul Dragons

Kovai Kings

Nellai Royal Kings

Salem Spartans

Madurai Panthers

Trichy Grand Cholas

Tiruppur Tamizhans

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Team locations

Ahead of the 2017 season, Kanchi Warriors moved its base to changed its name to Tiruchirappalli and changed its name to Trichy Warriors.^[41] Before the 2018 season, the Madurai franchise was sold to Seichem Technologies and was renamed as Madurai Panthers.^[42] Thiruvallur Veerans was renamed as Kanchi Veerans ahead of the same season.^[43] In 2019, the BCCI said that action was initiated against the owners of two of the franchises for match fixing.^[44] In response, the TNCA asked the franchise Tuti Patriots to remove two of their co-owners.^[45] Tuti Patriots became solely owned by Selvakumar after two of the three owners moved out and was the team was renamed as Salem Spartans. Ahead of the 2020 season, Karaikudi Kaalai was also renamed as Tiruppur Tamizhans after moving to the city of Tiruppur.^[46] Kanchi Veerans franchise was also sold to Crown Forts and was known as Nellai Royal Kings after shifting its base to Tirunelveli.^[47] Ahead of the 2023 season, the Trichy Warriors franchise was bought by Drumstick productions and renamed to Ba11sy Trichy for a single season, before it was renamed again as Trichy Grand Cholas ahead of the 2024 season.^[48]

Present teams Former teams

Dindigul

Tirunelveli

Chennai

Salem

Coimbatore

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Match venues

Three venues were used for the first the first four seasons. League matches were hosted at Indian Cement Company Ground in Tirunelveli and NPR College Ground at Dindigul with the playoffs held at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium at Chennai.^[5][49] From the 2020 season, matches were held at two new venues: Salem Cricket Foundation Stadium at Salem and SNR College Cricket Ground at Coimbatore.^[50][51][52]

^† Team now defunct
^{^} Final was a no-result and trophy shared

•   C: champions
•   RU: runner-up
•   SF or PO: team qualified for the semi-final or playoff stage of the competition

Source:^[58][59][60]

Source:^[61]

Source:^{[62][63][64][65][66]}

Source:^[67]

• List of regional T20 cricket leagues in India

Official website