What’s going to happen?

There will be eight teams in the first season. Don’t rely on the current names as they’re all establishing their individual branding and amendments are being announced all the time:

Teams: Mumbai Indians, Bangalore Royal Challengers, Deccan Chargers, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Dare-Devils, Mohali (Kings XI Punjab), Kolkata Knight Riders, and the Rajasthan Royals.

Matches are to be played between Friday the 18th April and Sunday the 1st June at: Bangalore,

Mohali, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Chennai. Interestingly, although each team plays the other teams at home and away, the two semi-finals and the final (21st April to 1st June) will be staged at Mumbai, so that makes ten matches at Mumbai and seven at all the other grounds. If Mumbai make it to the semi-final stage, they will enjoy home advantage…

The format will be 20/20 cricket (one twenty over innings each, that’s only 120 deliveries), with an approximate total match duration (including the break) of under three hours.

Owners of some of the team franchises are Bollywood movie stars and singers, so expect the musical and visual entertainment industry to intertwine their unique style and fan-culture with the cricket action. At least three Hindi pop anthems have already been commissioned for the Kolkata team alone (by Bappi Lahiri, Usha Uthup and Bhoomi), so expect a lot of noise.

By Adam Corres,

Author of Raffles and the Match-Fixing Syndicate, the guide to cricket gamesmanship.