Even more remarkable still that the England & Wales Cricket Board thought it could host the IPL. Last Tuesday at Lord's it launched 'The Great Exhibition' to promote this summer's "unprecedented festival" of cricket. Goodness knows what they would have called it if the 59 IPL fixtures had been slipped in amid some 500 domestic fixtures, 10 one-day internationals, seven Tests and the World Twenty20 tournament. So befuddling is this smorgasbord of entertainment that the accompanying fixture list proclaimed the ODIs to be of 40 overs duration. Nice idea, especially if to try and validate the doomed Pro40, but not yet.
The ECB also failed to recognise the hypocrisy in inviting the world's best Twenty20 cricketers here as warm-up for the World Twenty20 at a time when it was bleating about Kent's signing of Stuart Clark. But, as we have seen with Mr Stanford, the dollar signs can be awfully hypnotic.
That said, the IPL can be good for those seven cricketers from England (Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood, Owais Shah, Ravi Bopara, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Graham Napier) taking part, especially Pietersen. For the truth is that, despite attracting the top dollar (1.55m of them, along with Flintoff) at the recent auction, he is not yet very good at Twenty20.
In this format he has not yet found the ideal batting tempo. It has become a well-used, if perplexing to some, Twenty20 cliche that players have more time than they think.
But they have; 120 balls is a long time. And a journey cannot often begin in the outside lane. Pietersen must learn this.
He is also to captain the Bangalore Royal Challengers, with a rather appetising confrontation coming a week tomorrow in Port Elizabeth against Chennai Super Kings, captained by his old rival from the winter, MS Dhoni, with Flintoff in his ranks. One must pray that, amongst such a galaxy of stars (he has the likes of Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher in his squad), Pietersen rediscovers a desire for leadership, so evidently missing in recent pronouncements. England need Pietersen to skipper their World Twenty20 campaign. If required, bended-knee entreaties must be made.
Calls for Rob Key are misplaced. Key is a decent, inventive county captain. He is also a decent Twenty20 batsman. But he is no short-form specialist. Until recently he was a moderate one-day player. If only one Kent opener is to play in the World Twenty20, it must be Joe Denly.
To Denly the IPL would have been a godsend, but instead Napier (now of the Mumbai Indians) goes as our uncapped bolter. He might not find the bowling as accommodating as Sussex's in his career-defining 152 not out last season, but he now has a meaningful opportunity to push for an England place.
Initial news of crowds out in South Africa is heartening, with the double-header in Cape Town on Saturday (Flintoff's Chennai versus Napier's Mumbai, then Pietersen's Bangalore versus the champions, Mascarenhas' and Shane Warne's Rajasthan Royals) a sell-out.
And after-season pitches might be juicy; a far cry from India last year and average scores around 180. Think more like 140 now. But whatever the IPL brings, it will doubtless bring something different. We have already had coach John Buchanan's madcap multiple captains theory for his Kolkata Knight Riders (presumably a circuitous method of telling Sourav Ganguly he is not captain). Now we will have colourful fast bowler Sri Sreesanth, nominally of the Kings XI Punjab but injured with a stress fracture, acting as a 'fans mentor' throughout the tournament.
"I'll be mixing with the fans, interacting with them and keeping the mood alive. Of course, there'll be a lot of dancing," he says.
And, for those who might recall an incident when Harbhajan Singh slapped him in last year's IPL, no crying.
How the IPL teams line up
IPL starts on April 18 – in Cape Town – with Rajastan taking on Bangalore. The final is in Johannesburg on May 24. Kevin Pietersen’s Bangalore play Andrew Flintoff’s Chennai on April 20.
The Deccan Chargers
Team worth: $107m.
Star men: Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist .
Rajasthan Royals
Team worth: $67m.
Star men: Shane Warne, Shane Watson.
Mumbai Indians
Team worth: $111.9m.
Star men: Sanath Jayasuriya, Sachin Tendulkar.
Englishmen: Graham Napier.
Chennai Super Kings
Team worth: $91m.
Star men: MS Dhoni, Matthew Hayden.
Englishmen: Andrew Flintoff.
Kings XI Punjab
Team worth:$76m.
Star man: Yuvraj Singh.
Englishmen: Ravi Bopara .
Kolkata Knight Riders
Team worth: $75.09m.
Star men: Sourav Ganguly, Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle.
Delhi Daredevils
Team worth: $84m.
Star man: Virender Sehwag.
Englishmen: Paul Collingwood, Owais Shah.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Team worth:$111.6m.
Star men: Kevin Pietersen, Jesse Ryder, Dale Steyn.
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