BILLIONS of eyes will zoom in towards the direction of India on Friday when the revolutionary Indian Premier League (IPL) swings into action for a 44-day wall-to-wall orgy of Twenty20 cricket।
It is a concept which has success written all over it, mainly because the cricket-obsessed Indian population would travel miles just to watch anybody bowl to a batsman, never mind the cream of the world's top players all on their doorsteps for the next six weeks.
Having said that, it will be interesting to see how much of an attraction the IPL will be outside the sub-continent।
I mean can you imagine if anyone had told a South African cricket fan a couple of years ago they would be tuning in live and watching a match between Bangalore and Delhi or Mumbai against Rajasthan?
No, besides a couple of avid Indian-born fans in this country, the thought would have been laughed at।
But on Friday, when the first match is played, fans from all around the world will switch on their TV sets to witness players who have been enemies in the Test and one-day arena suddenly teaming up against others in similar situations। It is truly the United Nations of cricket all wrapped up in one package.
For local fans there is plenty of fascinating match-ups। Just a run through at the teams and the talent available is enough to make you want to watch. But, as I said, the interesting part is will South Africans or Aussies or New Zealanders get behind the whole concept and support one team or just watch this 44-day spectacle as pure entertainment?
I suspect the latter, but in years to come they may be more loyal toward one particular team.
For the Bangalore Royal Challengers how about Rahul Dravid as captain with Jacques Kallis, Wasim Jaffer and Misbah ul-Haq wielding the bat with bowlers like Anil Kumble, Dale Steyn, Zaheer Khan as well as Mark Boucher behind the stumps।
Then there are the Chennai Super Kings, coached by Kepler Wessels, with MS Dhoni captaining a team which has Jacob Oram, Albie Morkel, Muttiah Muralitharan, Michael Hussey, Stephen Fleming and Makhaya Ntini। Not bad in anyone's language.
Enter the Delhi DareDevils with Virender Sehwag as skipper followed by the batting talents of Gautam Gambhir, Mohammad Asif, AB de Villers and Tillakaratne Dilshan with bowlers Daniel Vettori and Glenn McGrath, now aged 38, but determined to show he is still king of line and length bowling।
Then there are the Deccan Chargers led by Andrew Symonds who will have support from RP Singh, the explosive Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs, VVS Laxman, Chaminda Vaas and Scott Syris, that dogged Kiwi।
Speedster
The Rajasthan Royals are coached and captained by Shane Warne and what a sight to see him and Graeme Smith in the same team। They also have Mohammad Kaif, Younis Khan, Justin Langer and Kamran Akmal, not to mention speedster Shane Watson.
The Kolkata Knight Riders will be a force with skipper Sourav Ganguly, Ishant Sharma, Chris Gayle, Shoaib Akhtar (he has a point to prove), Ricky Ponting and Umar Gul.
The Kings Punjab is captained by Yuvrav Singh and also includes Irfan Pathan, Brett Lee, Kumar Sangakkara, Sreesanth, Mahela Jayawardene and Ramnaresh Sarwan।
The biggest name in Indian cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, is next up as captain of the Mumbai Indians and he can call on the brilliant Sanath Jayasuriya, Harbhajan Singh, Shaun Pollock, Lasith Malinga and even our own Ashwell Prince and Loots Bosman।
It all adds up to a feast of cricket, which should change the face of the game forever.
For purists, however, it might be too much. Never mind.
Nothing can take the place of a real five-day Test match. That, happily, will always be around, at least in our and our children's lifetime.
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