Indian Premier League Cricket Kicks Off Today

March 12 - It's that time of the year again when cricket fever reaches hysteria pitch in India and around the world.

Today marks the day of the opening of the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, with last year's winners, the Deccan Chargers meeting the Kolkata Knight Riders in Mumbai.

Last year was an extraordinary one for the IPL. Due to security reasons, the second season of the tournament had to be moved outside the country and organizers did a fantastic job of relocating the competition to South Africa within a few short weeks.

More than 10,000 cricketers and staff members were flown from India to South Africa, with $100million injected into the country's economy as a result.

All eyes were on South Africa as some of the best cricket in the world was played out before the eyes of literally millions.

IPL 2009 marked the first time that that cricket squads could include 10 foreign players instead of the usual 8. However, the rules still remained that only four were allowed in any playing 11.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India also negotiated with the English Cricket Board to allow English players to participate in IPL 2009. Eventually, they were given permission to play for 21 days in between tours.

Some of the more interesting choices made by teams during IPL 2009 included the decision by Kolkata Knight Riders coach, John Buchanan's decision to use the knowledge of four players (Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, Brad Hodge and Sourav Ganguly) to create a four-captain team.

Bangalore Royal Challengers owner Vijay Mallya also made headlines after he paid a record $1.55 million to sign on Kevin Pietersen, who was eventually made captain.

The Chennai Super Kings also went on to pay the same to sign on Andrew Flintoff.

So who will take this year's IPL? Last year's underdogs, the Deccan Chargers eventually went on to win, so anything is possible in this extraordinary cricket tournament.

Place your bets today and join in the action.

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