After missing the stadium excitement of the second season held in South Africa, India prepares itself to play the host for third edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 3).
Starting from Mar 12, up until the finals on 25 Apr, IPL 2010 promises to sweep the Twenty20 cricket craze across all major cities in India.
The eight franchise teams namely Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kings XI Punjab, Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Deccan Chargers, Mumbai Indians, Delhi Dare Devils and Rajasthan Royals will battle it out for the T20 title at seven of the home venues of the teams along with four new venues.
IPL 2010 Fixture |
Teams |
Points Table |
Orange-Purple Cap The new venues include Nagpur, Vishakapatnam, Ahmedabad and Dharamsala.
The IPL 3 heat began very early as it found itself in the middle of a slew of controversies, starting from the auction right down to terror threats. Even though the firs two seasons of the event saw a fair share of troubles, IPL 2010 set a whole new record in this regard.
The storm began when an alleged snub was dished out to the Pakistani players at the auction, leading to bitter war of words between India and Pakistan. This snowballed into a nationwide split when Shiv Sena's Balt Tahckeray and Kolkata Knight Riders owner Shahrukh Khan took sides.
Thackeray continued the political stir, by protesting the entry of Australian players in Maharashtra in the view of the alleged racist attacks on Indians down under.
Besides this, the Telangana agitations also forced the matches slated to be hosted in Hyderabad to be moved to Mumbai, making Hyderabad the only home venue to be excluded this season.
The internal turmoil was added on to by international threats. HuJI, a militant organisation linked to the al-Qaeda, issued a threat to all international players visiting India forceing the sports bodies to assess safety of their atheletes.
All these controversies, however, failed to dampen the spirits of the fans, who bubbling with excitement to enjoy the country's favorite sport.
