The players will be hoping that it can extend careers or, in some cases, offer choices. Would they want to play day in, day out county cricket for four months in front of fewer spectators than at a dinner table, if they get the same amount of money for playing six weeks? Will older players find a three-hour game easier to handle or will they be found out by younger players with little respect for age and records? Will the IPL in fact hasten the exit of middle-aged players?

Will cricket remain the staple attraction or will it have to cede way to this curious amalgam of cricket and entertainment (as if either needed a prop!). So far, the only “entertainment” came from the cheerleaders who cheered with equal enthusiasm, or monotony, for either side. Now, there are movie stars, lead singers, dancers from the United States... Is this the way ahead? And what will this do to the traditional, die-hard cricket watcher? My feeling is that the sandwich has got to be full of the real thing but that is something that we will learn as we go along.

And I think the impact will be felt on one-day cricket in a few months as fielding standards improve, definitions of good totals change and exotic deliveries make their appearance. Cricket will not be the same but that does not necessarily mean it will be the worse for it.

So you see, it isn’t just a cricket match that begins on Friday evening. But, and wonderfully so, almost everything I have talked about here depends on how that cricket match and others like it go!

... contd.