Indian Premier League preview: Return of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals guarantees drama

Preview: Chennai’s return in particular – they take on Mumbai Indians, the defending champions, in the tournament opener – will be a sight to behold

The IPL is about to return (Getty)

Once upon a time, the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the man who was its architect, really did care about how it was perceived in different parts of the world. In 2009, when the second season was shifted to South Africa because of general elections back home, your correspondent was escorted out of Supersport Park in Centurion for having ‘broken accreditation guidelines’. My crime? An article on Cricinfo (then on the BCCI’s banned list) about the pictorial tributes to former stars under the stands at St. George’s Park in Port Elizabeth.

My argument that the story had nothing to do with the IPL or its rights cut no ice. Embarrassed officials politely told me that it was ‘the boss’s decision’. In the cab back to Johannesburg, I sent Lalit Modi a polite email, mentioning the number of column inches I’d written about the IPL for newspapers across the globe. Within a couple of minutes, I had a reply asking me to go back and collect my pass.

A year later, Modi was gone, with a Dear John letter in his hand minutes after the IPL final had finished. These days, with a $2.55 billion-dollar deal signed for the next half-decade of broadcast rights, the IPL no longer needs to bother about external validation. The long line of elite cricketers desperate for a passage to India, even in miserable summer heat, is all the endorsement it needs.

The first decade hasn’t been without its controversies. Modi’s exit was largely triggered by questions about the dodgy ownership patterns that many franchises had. And three years later, both players – including Sreesanth, a World Cup winner in 2011 – and team officials were implicated in a spot-fixing scandal, though very little by way of solid evidence ever found its way into the public domain.

There has been endless chatter since of an envelope in the custody of the Supreme Court that contains the names of 13 culpable parties, including some of the game’s heavy hitters. A guilty Baker’s Dozen, if you like. But again, innuendo and speculation have never been elbowed aside by proof. What did happen, however, was the banishment of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for two seasons.

Chennai’s return – they take on Mumbai Indians, the defending champions, in the tournament opener – will be a sight to behold. Even if it’s an away game, Whistle Podu [Blow the whistle], the Chennai anthem, will reverberate around stands dotted with the canary-yellow jersey. And nothing will get those fans going quite like the sight of Mahendra Singh Dhoni – roots in Uttarakhand in the north, born and raised in Ranchi in the east, but now adopted son of the south.

Thala [The Leader] has led Chennai to two titles, and four other finals, and the connect with the fans can only be compared to the communion between Diego Maradona and the Boca Juniors faithful. But while Dhoni goes out for the toss, two others who had been pencilled in to captain teams will be the width of the Indian Ocean away. Steve Smith [Rajasthan] and David Warner [who led Sunrisers Hyderabad to the trophy in 2016] were scratched from the respective rosters once Cricket Australia announced its sanctions for Sandpapergate.

The Chennai Super Kings have won two IPL titles (Getty)

In the wake of that, Rajasthan’s progress will, for British fans of the IPL, be like watching one of those Raj-era shows. Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer will be central to their fortunes, and a strong campaign could well change the way English players are perceived by a majority of the franchises. Stokes was sensational for the now-disbanded Pune team last season, and his absence for the final stages cost them the trophy.

With the Under-19s having romped through their World Cup earlier this year, and the national side having routed South Africa on their turf, India boast enviable depth in the white-ball formats. The weak links of a decade ago are a thing of the past, and only Hyderabad will have an overseas player leading the side – Kane Williamson.

Attendances for the Big Bash League were down this year, maybe as a result of post-Ashes fatigue, and with so many of the other Twenty20 leagues struggling to stay afloat, the IPL can’t afford any complacency. The Tendulkar generation, once thought to be irreplaceable, made way for the cult of Kohli, and there is currently huge excitement over three Under-19 signings made by the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Whatever the accuracy of the speed guns employed, both Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi clocked in excess of 145 km/hr during the World Cup. Shubman Gill batted as though a man among boys. Having seen the likes of Hardik Pandya break into the national side on the back of impactful IPL displays, the kids will appreciate the stage far more than the million-dollar paychecks.

Less than a decade after the doomsday prophecies, Kohli is the best all-format batsman in the world, and Indian cricket is in ruder health than it has ever been. If he could find the time between slating James Sutherland, Giles Clarke and N Srinivasan for ‘bringing the game into disrepute’, Modi should give himself a pat on the back.