A Bibliometric Analysis on the Growth of the Indian Premier League and Its Effect on the Game of Cricket, Its Players and Society

Abstract

A detailed understanding of sport dynamics is essential to the modern societies since professional leagues nowadays support employment, social unity, and development policy. The Indian Premier League (IPL), launched by BCCI in 2007, exemplifies rapid market growth through its innovative franchising model, attracting significant sponsorships and viewership, thereby transforming cricket into a lucrative entertainment industry and creating new fan loyalties. This paper focuses on the growth of the Indian Premier league (IPL) as an international phenomenon to evaluate the structural forces, such as the payment of athletes, commercialization, and hiring of talents, as well as the sociocultural aspects such as youth engagement and improvement of professionalism. Bibliometric and visual mapping techniques were imposed using a Scopus database of 252 publications using VosViewer, which outlined key research areas, including performance evaluation and predictive analytics. It was found that India is a key global node of sports scholarship, and there is an observable movement towards the analysis of performance conditioned by machine-learning methods. The findings highlight the role of the IPL in raising the standards of cricketing at the same time leaving the franchise owners exposed to financial risks. The research provides practical conclusions to the stakeholders who are located in the sports and economic fields.