IPL to get lauched in Bangalore in a grand manner

After all the hype, the Indian Premier League, with its potential to transform world cricket forever, begins on Friday with a floodlit match in Bangalore. The contests between eight teams with most of the top names in the game will be closely watched in England, the birthplace of Twenty20 cricket.

The ECB is in talks with an American billionaire to set up its own version. The first match is between Bangalore, led by Rahul Dravid and Kolkata, captained by Sourav Ganguly. The former India captains will walk out for the toss in a stadium plunged in darkness.

Spotlights will trail them as they make their way to the middle, then finally the floodlights will come on as the home team's franchise, the Royal Challengers, take on the Kolkata Knight Riders.

The six-week tournament, culminating in the final in Mumbai on 1 June, should see some mouthwatering cricket with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai), Ricky Ponting (Kolkata) and Matthew Hayden (Chennai) facing the bowling of Brett Lee (Punjab) and Shane Warne (Rajasthan).

Journalists have been told the opening match is officially a sell-out. The IPL's website, also reports on the "brisk sale of tickets" for Mumbai's home matches. But the BBC's Rahul Tandon said the rushed build-up to the matches had created a sense of confusion for Indian fans.

He said: "The organisers wanted to do this quickly in response to the Indian Cricket League but they are not completely ready for it.

"It's hard to pick up merchandise - I didn't see one person in Kolkata with a Knight Rider shirt. And we still don't know if there will be a news conference before the first match."

There are one of two notable absentees for the first few matches.

Star names Tendulkar, Anil Kumble and Nathan Bracken are injured and out of the opening exchanges.

The most exciting fast bowler around, South Africa's Dale Steyn, is playing domestic cricket for the Titans back home and will also miss the start.

Meanwhile, England's only representative, Dimitri Mascarenhas, will only be released from Hampshire duty for a fortnight some time in May.

The IPL may be a vivid symbol of the new wealth in India. But one team owner, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, has admitted to having "sleepless nights" about how the League might pan out.

On Sunday, Kolkata-based newspaper Anand Bazaar Patrika quoted him as saying he was "quite disappointed" with the early take-up of tickets.

"I was really surprised that only 237 tickets had been sold at the counter," Khan told the paper. "I am truly finding it difficult to accept this. I have never requested my fans to go and see my films. Never ever done it.

"I am a bit surprised as to why, despite keeping the ticket prices low, people are not showing any interest. "I never thought so many problems would crop up." Another aggrieved party is the editor of the Cricinfo website, Sambit Bal. His journalists have been barred from entering the press box, and agencies will not be able to sell them match pictures.

Bal wrote in an editorial: "The IPL's outrageous regulations are a brazen assault on the concept of freedom of the press by a sports body apparently drunk on its sense of power." The Federation of International Cricketers' Associations also has concerns of a different nature.

It has begun investigating how many players have not received their initial IPL fees and has warned if the problem is widespread they could walk away from their contracts. David Hussey, who sold for US$625,000 in February, is one of the Australians who has not received the 15% payment for their auction price, which was reportedly due on 1 April.

"It's been an absolute nightmare in terms of the paperwork required to get the players there," Hussey's manager Rick Olarenshaw told The Age.

The airline and brewery tycoon Vijay Mallya has enlisted the services of the Washington Redskins cheerleaders to add some glamour to his Bangalore team.

And there have also been reports that Mallya is keeping a staggering 40% of the tickets for Friday's first match to give to his private business associates - that may explain why it's sold out.

It will certainly be a new experience for the fans.

The ones that do make it through the turnstiles will be supporting players from all corners of the world who they have never cheered for before.

There will be strange sub-plots too. Harbhajan Singh will be playing for Mumbai, and therefore against his "local" team Punjab.

And how will fans of seven of the eight teams react each time Tendulkar - for so long the favourite of all Indians - is dismissed?