The best IPL players over the years

As IPL6 begins, it is a good idea to look at the first five years and recall the 20 best players of each of the previous editions of the Twenty20 tournament.

We define "best" in terms of the most valuable player index (MVPI).

MVPI collapses a player's batting, bowling and fielding performances into a one-dimensional 'run equivalent'.

For example, Shane Watson's MVPI of 876 for Rajasthan Royals in IPL1 indicates that his batting, bowling and fielding performance is equivalent to scoring 876 'runs'.

The best MVPI scores are obtained if a batsman scores a lot of runs at a high strike rate, takes a lot of wickets at a low economy rate or is responsible for the most number of catches and stumpings. The higher the MVPI, the better is the player's performance.

We also define a second index with a rather colourful name: paisa vasool index (PVI).

To obtain a player's PVI, we divide his total money offered by his MVPI. So the PVI estimates how many dollars the franchise owner pays the player for every 'run' scored. The lower the PVI, the greater the value offered by the player.

Here are the details (in decreasing order of MVPI):

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