Let's dive headlong into masala cricket!

The euphoria of the World Cup win has far from died down, Gary Kirsten has barely said his goodbyes, the man of the tournament is certainly not done flashing his pearly whites and the nation is just about getting used to (Dr?) Dhoni's sharp good looks!

We have barely had time to recover from the Cup that mattered and we are diving headlong into masala cricket at its mightiest! Any country other than India, and one would talk of cricket or fan fatigue, but this nation has an insatiable appetite for the game and the fervor, enthusiasm and energy for it, will in fact, stay intact.

Sangakkara looking forward to stint with Deccan Chargers

The much awaited, greatly loved IPL is back: In its longest, strongest and biggest of all editions: 74 games, 49 days in 12 venues. A gear shift from the slightly laid back 50 over, 8 hour game, to the give-it-all-you-got-in-3 hours feast of runs and wickets. And now with the Tuskers and Warriors joining the likes of the Super Kings, Challengers and Chargers, the stage is set for a battle royale between the big 10.

The only slight hiccup for me, is that just when we got used to players belonging to certain teams, this season we'll see a lot of them change their colors. Hard to imagine a hardcore Delhi Daredevil, Gautam Gambhir, captain the Kolkata Knight Riders or Yuvraj, the out and out Punjab boy, now at the helm of the Pune Warriors team, or even Adam Gilchrist, who was bleeding (Deccan) blue, now calling the shots for Ms Zinta's team. It's suddenly like all of us have to unlearn everything and start over.

But the truth is, that with this shuffling of players like a pack of cards, we'll get to see lots of new and interesting alliances form and see players who (till just a few days ago) fought together for their nation's pride, now locking horns, for the love of their franchise.

The dark side of the World Cup

With a huge world event immediately preceding the IPL, for a change the teams haven't really gotten together and bonded yet as a unit or had any face time with their glamorous, larger than life, franchise owners. Also quite a few of the international players won't be joining the cricket carnival till later in the tournament.

But this is going to be a long, colourful journey with plenty of time, lots of fun and partying and no shortage of games, for teams to find their rhythm, chemistry and exciting new heroes.

Professional Management Group

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