How Lalit Modi Bent Rules to Elevate IPL Opener Viewership in 2008

Without Lalit Modi, what would be the future of the Indian Premier League (IPL)? The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) banned Lalit Modi for life in 2013; before that, the tone was already set. From 2008 (the inaugural year of IPL) to now, 2025, the Twenty20 franchise tournament is now well known as a cash-rich league, possibly the most popular franchise-based tournament as well. But how was the beginning of IPL, what Lalit did to make the launch successful?

After all these years, the former chairman shared some unheard information about the first match of IPL. Speaking on the former Australian captain Michael Clarke’s Beyond23 Cricket Podcast, Lalit Modi claimed that to gain the maximum number of viewers from the very first match of IPL, he breached the exclusivity agreement with official broadcaster Sony, and he brought news channels into play to telecast IPL’s first-ever match between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) live. 

"Everything, everything was dependent on that one game. I broke every rule in the book that day. I signed the contract, an exclusive contract with Sony, but Sony didn’t have the reach and asked to open the signal. Now it was available everywhere, right? And I told all the broadcasters who lost out, all of you, all news channels, to go live. Sony said, ‘I’ll sue you.’ I said, ‘Sue me later; forget about it. Ok, we are going live now because you don’t have the reach. I needed everybody to watch the first game. If the first game had flopped, I was dead," Lalit said in the podcast. 

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McCullum's swashbuckling batting played a big role also

The rest is history. The first game in the history of the Indian Premier League turned into a blockbuster hit. Former New Zealand batter Brendon McCullum, who was then a Kolkata Knight Riders batter, smashed a 158-run knock off 73 to set the tone perfectly. The crowd in the gallery and viewers on screen lived every moment of the evening.

McCullum's swashbuckling batting and the KKR vs RCB IPL 2008 match are all now considered landmark moments of Indian cricket.