IPL: Act VI, Scene I - Lights, Camera, Action

It's that time of the year when cricket ceases to be a mere sport. It's that time of the year when schedules are tweaked around so that people are home well before 8.00 pm, settling themselves comfortably in front of their television sets to partake in equal measures of the game of bat and ball and entertainment. It's that time of the year when Sangakkara and Jayawardene plot against each other, just as it's that time of the year when Steyn and Ishant work alongside one another. It is, of course, IPL time.

Edition six of the most followed, and most debated, domestic cricket tournament in the world is almost upon us. Come Wednesday (April 3), Kolkata Knight Riders will begin the defence of their crown against Delhi Daredevils at the Eden Gardens, the first of 76 potentially mouth-watering clashes at the end of which, on May 26 - also in Kolkata - the last team standing will be identified.

The star cast has been dented somewhat by the absence through injuries of various natures to Kevin Pietersen, Michael Clarke and, tragically, Jesse Ryder. No one will be missed more than Pietersen, charismatic and charming, with a bruising game designed to answer the demands of the Twenty20 format. But as ever, there is enough quality otherwise to ensure that as the tournament progresses, the focus will shift on those that are playing, not those that are unavailable.

Favourite-picking in sport is a wonderfully fascinating pastime, but particularly in Twenty20 cricket, it is an exercise fraught with danger. Fortunes change in the blink of an eye, matches turn on their head in the space of a few deliveries, the yo-yoing pendulum settles decisively following a moment of magic, or of madness. All nine teams - including Sunrisers Hyderabad, who will make their IPL debut - begin equal going into the tournament, though it is inevitable that there will be some teams more equal than others.

None, perhaps, more so than Mumbai Indians, the perennial bridesmaids of the IPL even if they have won the more universal Champions League in the past. Fortified by the inclusion of Ricky Ponting, bought at the auction earlier this year as much for his leadership skills as his batting abilities, Mumbai have every ingredient necessary to go all the way this time around. Ponting knows what it is like to not just be on the winning side but also to lead a winning team. He has enormous resources to fall back on, not least the dynamic overseas duo of Lasith Malinga and Kieron Pollard, and has already admitted to an excitement at playing alongside Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh under a revamped management team with John Wright as the head coach and Anil Kumble as the chief mentor.

Mumbai Indians have come into every tournament as one of the teams to beat, but they have been upstaged on each of the five previous occasions. Chennai Super Kings, with Mahendra Singh Dhoni at the helm, will once again fancy their chances of being involved in the mix at the business end alongside the Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore, who have bolstered their pace department substantially to supplement their enormous batting riches inclusive of Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli, the new skipper.

Delhi Daredevils, so strong during the league phase last year before fading away in the matches that mattered, have been hit most by injuries and loss of form. Deprived of the services of Pietersen and Ryder, they will also have to contend with the absence, at least for the opening game, of Morne Morkel - doing Twenty20 duty back in South Africa - as well as Varun Aaron, still nursing an injury that scuttled his entire domestic season. Virender Sehwag and David Warner are desperately short on runs and confidence, and with the Daredevils having offloaded Ross Taylor in the off season for Ashish Nehra, Mahela Jayawardene has his work cut out, both as batsman and as captain.

Kings XI will threaten, as they always do, and Pune Warriors India will try under Angelo Mathews, a first-time IPL skipper, to bounce back from a disastrous last season when they brought up the foot of the table, but the surprise package could be the Sunrisers, different in ownership and management stakes but possessing almost the same players as last year. The freshness of Tom Moody, the coach, and the expertise of Waqar Younis, the bowling coach, could be just the tonic Kumar Sangakkara's boys require going into a new season.

The build-up to the tournament hasn't been without its fair share of controversy. With the Tamil Nadu government, as well as opposition parties in the state, making it clear that the IPL would go ahead in Chennai only if there is no Sri Lankan participation in those matches, the governing council decided in its collective wisdom that no franchise would field a Sri Lankan player during the eight league games in the Tamil Nadu capital, or in the first Eliminator and the Qualifier towards the end of May.

There are 13 Sri Lankans in the IPL and every team except the Kings XI have a Sri Lankan representative; three franchises are being led by Sri Lankans. What repercussions the move will have remains to be seen, especially towards the end of the league stage when places in the next phase are at stake. All that can be said with certainty is that cricket has once again been reduced to a pawn in the game of political one-upmanship. Whether that's the way to go is something for the politicians and cricket's administrators to figure out.

Adding to the drama is the demand that, with water such a scarce commodity in the country's financial capital, all matches be moved out of the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Again, the timing of the demand is, quite frankly, bizarre, if nothing else.

Fortunately, cricket will return to centrestage with the toss at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday. This could be the last time the likes of Ponting, Tendulkar, Adam Gilchrist, Rahul Dravid and Mike Hussey grace the IPL stage as players. Already, a fair few of these superstars have debunked the theory that Twenty20 is a young man's game. Who is to say that there isn't more fight left in those old legs yet?

Love it or hate it, you can't ignore the IPL. Settle in, then, for eight weeks of what is certain to be an exhilarating, emotional roller-coaster ride.