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The 2012 Indian Premier League season, abbreviated as IPL 5 or the IPL 2012 or the DLF IPL 2012 (owing to title sponsorship reasons), was the fifth season of the Indian Premier League, initiated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007 with the first season played in 2008. The tournament began on 4 April and ended on 27 May 2012. Kolkata Knight Riders were the winning team, beating defending champions Chennai Super Kings by five wickets in the final. This season the number of teams in the league went from ten to nine with the termination of Kochi Tuskers Kerala.
Despite a slow start, IPL 5 earned a higher cumulative viewership than any previous edition of the IPL. The cumulative reach for 74 IPL 5 matches was recorded at 163 million against 162 million for 73 matches in IPL 4, and the final match had a higher reach than any previous final. The IPL 2012 edition was the most competitive season of which produced many nail biting finishes. In the 2012 season, there were 19 matches which produced results in the last over, and a couple of them produced results in the last ball. There were also 6 matches in which team won by a margin of less than 10 runs. Near the end of the season, the season faced various hurdles including a spot fixing case, which allegedly included 5 players caught on a sting operation carried on by a local news channel.
The IPL Committee terminated the Kochi Tuskers Kerala franchise after it breached the BCCI's terms of conditions. Under the terms of the agreement, each franchise has to submit a bank guarantee every year that covers the fee payable to the BCCI. The team, founded in 2010, was bought for ₹ 1,550 crore and the consortium has to pay a bank guarantee of ₹ 1.56 billion every year until 2020. Despite this, the Tuskers' former players participated in this season's competition after being included in the players auction on 4 February 2012.
On 13 January, the BCCI asked the international players of Kochi Tuskers Kerala to register the individual court cases against the owners of the Kochi IPL team with the BCCI included as a party to each case.
Katy Perry made her maiden performance in India at the ceremony.
The opening ceremony took place on the evening of 3 April 2012 in the YMCA College of Physical Education, Chennai. The ceremony was designed by Wizcraft Entertainment, and began at 19:30 IST, lasting almost two and half hours. The tickets for the ceremony were priced at ₹1,500 (US$18) and were available online at the official website of the IPL from 16 March 2012. Similar to the previous versions, the captains of the nine participating teams took the "MCC Spirit of Cricket" pledge. Various Bollywood actors, dancers, and musicians performed in the ceremony.
The event was planned to be held at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, but was shifted to the YMCA College of Physical Education ground. The capacity of the YMCA college was lesser than that of the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, and this caused disappointment. Tamil Nadu Cricket Association said that the decision was made because the opening match was to be played at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, and thus they cannot have opening ceremony in it due to risk of the cricket ground getting damaged by the performances. Sabbas Joseph, director of Wizcraft Entertainment, talking about the ceremony stated that, "There will be good things, lots of entertainment and cricket. It's the first time that such a large-scale, separate concert is being organised for the IPL, so big things have been planned."
The ceremony included some performances by Amitabh Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor, Salman Khan, Prabhu Deva, Colonial Cousins, and Katy Perry. The opening game was held in the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, the home venue of the reigning champions Chennai Super Kings. The closing ceremony was also held at the same venue. The ceremony started at 19:30 IST, however the gates were opened at 17:00 IST. A huge cut out poster of Salman Khan was kept at the YMCA ground prior to the ceremony. The ceremony was hosted by Amitabh Bachchan who had undergone two abdominal surgeries in February 2012. Earlier he had conveyed a message via Twitter saying, "April 3rd is the day for the opening. Preparing for it already. Getting back into the grind." Media reports suggested that Bachchan will be dancing, however Joseph said that this is unlikely to happen. He began the ceremony by reciting a poem, "If I were to be born again" by Prasoon Joshi. Later, the Colonial Cousins, along with South African band First Project and DJ Ravi Drums, performed in the ceremony. It was followed by Priyanka Chopra performing with cricketers like Harbhajan Singh on various songs from her films. Prabhu Deva also performed on songs from his films such as Wanted and Hum Se Hai Muqablah. After that, few members of the Chennai Super Kings' squad arrived on the stage, and Chopra joined them. Later Kareena Kapoor danced to songs from her films Ra.One and Agent Vinod. The performances of Chopra and Kapoor were choreographed by Shiamak Davar and his companions. After the dance performances, the captains of the nine teams took the "MCC Spirit of Cricket" pledge. Captain of the defending champions, M.S. Dhoni placed the trophy on the podium and it was followed by the chairman of IPL, Rajiv Shukla crediting the players, franchise owners, supporting staff and the spectators for the success of IPL. He then formally opened the 2012 IPL, saying, "It gives me a great pleasure to flag off the fifth edition of the DLF Indian Premier League, an arena where quality international and domestic cricketers take part in intense contest of strategy and skill. IPL is a platform where talent meets opportunity."
Salman Khan performed on songs from his films Ready, Bodyguard, Wanted, Partner and Jab Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kiya. American pop star Katy Perry closed the ceremony performing "Firework" and "California Gurls". The ceremony ended with fireworks.
Chris Gayle created the record for the most number of consecutive sixes during a match in IPL history where he hit Rahul Sharma for 5 consecutive sixes in a single over.
The match started at 16:50 due to rain, but was not shortened. Also play was stopped for 8 minutes during Mumbai's chase as one of the light towers stopped working.
On 15 March, it was announced that due to the municipal election in Delhi, the playoff schedule was being slightly altered. The sites of 22 and 23 May matches were changed, with Pune now hosting the first qualifier on 22 May and Bengaluru hosting the eliminator on 23 May. Had the Royal Challengers Bangalore qualified for the playoffs, they would play the match in Bengaluru, switching which venue hosts which match if necessary.
Overall, 22,453 runs were scored at an average of 26.20. 857 wickets fell. Both the number of runs and of wickets were new IPL records. Six centuries were scored.
The first matches of the season had recorded an average Television Viewership Rating (TVR) of 3.76, 18.7% less than the previous season. The viewership was also reportedly low for the opening ceremony with a rating of 1.3 TVR. The decline was attributed to the number of matches being played, as the count stands at 76 among 9 teams. The rating continued to fall as the cumulative number of people who tuned in to watch the first 16 games also declined from 127.40 million in 2011 to 122.44 million.
However, despite this slow start, IPL 5 garnered a higher cumulative viewership than any previous edition of the IPL. The cumulative reach for 74 IPL 5 matches was recorded at 163 million against 162 million for 73 matches in IPL 4, and the final match had a higher reach than any previous final.
Spot fixing
On 14 May 2012, an Indian news channel India TV aired a sting operation that accused five players involved in spot fixing. Reacting to the news, Chief manager of Indian Premier League Rajiv Shukla immediately suspended all five: Mohnish Mishra, Shalabh Srivastava, TP Sudhindra, Amit Yadav, and Abhinav Bali (none of whom had played international cricket). However, the report went on to claim that none of the cricketers were found guilty. On the reliability of the report, Rajat Sharma, the editor-in-chief of news channel India TV quoted that the channel had no doubts about the authenticity of the sting operation and prepared to go to court.
Mohnish Mishra who was part of Pune Warriors India team for the season, admitted to have said that franchises pay black money, in a sting operation. Mishra was caught on tape saying that franchisees paid them black money and that he had received ₹15 million (US$180,000) from the later, among which ₹12 million (US$140,000) was black money. He was also suspended from his team.
Other charges
9 April: Sharukh Khan, owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders, was served a notice by the Rajasthan Police for smoking in public. Khan was caught smoking on camera during a match between the Kolkata Knight Riders, the IPL team he owns, and the Rajasthan Royals on 8 April.
16 May: Shahrukh Khan, owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders, received a five-year ban from the Wankhede Stadium for arguing with security at the ground after a match.
