The BCCI founded the Indian Premier League in 2007, and they played it for the first time in the 2008 season. The season began on April 18, 2008, and the organizers held the final match on June 1, 2008. Each of the eight teams played a home match and an away match against each other during the league stage of the competition’s double round robin. The matches were followed by two semi-finals and one final.
In a closely contested match decided on the last ball, Rajasthan Royals beat Chennai Super Kings and won the title. The tournament organizers declared Shane Watson the player of the tournament, and they declared Yusuf Pathan the player of the finals for the match. Shaun Marsh received the orange cap for being the highest run scorer in the tournament, and Sohail Tanvir received the purple cap for being the most wicket-taking bowler. CSK received the Fair Play special award, and they gave Shreevats Goswami the best under-19 player award.
The team ownership auctions took place on 24th January 2008. Mumbai became the most expensive team costing over USD 111.9 million. The salary cap for each team of the inaugural IPL season was USD 5 million. Icon players included Yuvraj Singh, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, and Sachin Tendulkar. They did not participate in the auction since they played for the teams from their hometowns. Only a few players were marked as marquee players, and the teams that did not get icon players could select one more marquee player at auction. Mahendra Singh Dhoni made the maximum bid of USD 1.5 million on February 20, 2008, in the first auction. Among foreign players, Andrew Symonds became the costliest. A second auction took place to recruit a few foreign players. Teams also signed players on an individual basis.