the ipl as a franchise and both have really helped each other grow she told afpwhat the ipl did was that it made cricket more interesting more interactive more celebratory and more fun because of association with celebrities and cricketers that is why i am a great fan of the iplthe teams spent nearly 75 million in the february player auction with mumbai indians retaining wicketkeeperbatsman ishan kishan for 2 million and punjab kings paying englands liam livingstone 152 million for his servicesby contrast the average player contract in englands sixmonthlong county championship is 66000the league was the brainchild of cricket administrator lalit modi who fled india for london after being sacked in 2010 over allegations of corruption and money launderingthe ipl has been dogged by scandala 2013 spotfixing and betting investigation resulted in the chennai super kings and rajasthan royals being suspended for two seasonsentrepreneur subrata roys sahara group pulled its pune warriors team from the 2013 ipl as it fought accusations that it had scammed millions of dollars from vast numbers of indias poorest familiesthe royal challengers bangalore team are owned by the indian arm of british drinks giant diageo united spirits whose chairman vijay mallya stepped down in 2016 over allegations of financial mismanagement and is now fighting extradition from britainbut for veteran cricket journalist pradeep magazine the ipls biggest drawback is the threat it poses to traditional cricket in particular fiveday test matchesthey bcci will have a lot of money but its also going to destroy the traditional format he told afpthe people who are going to pay huge money would also want this game to become bigger and bigger and consume more hours