As fans walked out of the Chinnaswamy stadium tonight, it was hard to say what they would remember of the evening — Brendon McCullum’s 13 sixes, the Kolkata team’s anti-climactic 140-run win, or the fireworks display of Olympic proportions that announced the arrival of the Indian Premier League.

In a tournament that some experts fear may create the biggest division in world cricket since Kerry Packer’s World Series, the ménage-a-trois between cricket, entertainment and business got most of what it had hoped for on the first day. Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, was surprisingly booed while he was declaring the tournament open. But looking at the packed house around him, he would not have minded the catcalls.

Crowds had started pouring in from late in the afternoon, trying to find their way to the Black Dog Pavilion, the Royal Challenge Stand, or the McDowell’s No 1 View — all named after brands of Vijay Mallya’s United Breweries stable. The theme extended to the not-so-surrogate advertising on the digital banners around the boundary line.

With Shankar, Ehsan and Loy providing the soundtrack with a series of their Bollywood hits, fans had got their money’s worth even before Rahul Dravid flipped the coin and Sourav Ganguly called “tails.” The golden helmets and pads of the Knight Riders’ openers were the icing on the cake.

It was always going to be difficult for the cricket to compete with the tempo set by the laser show and the highly publicised cheerleaders from Washington. As Bangalore’s wickets tumbled in reply to an imposing 222 for three from Kolkata, the smiles on Mallya and Modi’s face would have been replaced by worried frowns. The excitement in the match will have to complement the pre-game frenzy for the IPL to hold the audience for 44 days. An abject surrender by the home team doesn’t help their cause.

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