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Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi is on the panel to decide on the Player of the Tournament for the inaugural edition of the IPL © AFP

Three former India captains - Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri - also part of the IPL's governing council, have been assigned the task of selecting the Player of the Tournament for the inaugural edition of the league.

The chosen one will get a trophy besides Rs 10 lakh (approx US$25,000). Given the billions of dollars at stake in the league, the Rs 10 lakh prize does sound a bit down-to-earth, considering the winner of the corresponding award in the Indian Cricket League's ongoing Twenty20 tournament gets Rs 40 lakh (approx US$100,000).

"Choosing a Man of the Match or a Man of the Series is always a difficult job," Gavaskar said, "but hopefully with the years of experience between Tiger [Pataudi], Ravi and myself, I am sure that our choice for the Man of the Series will not disappoint the lovers of the game."

Rahul Dravid didn't seem at ease in front of the cameras © AFP

Bollywood is taking over the IPL in more ways than one. On Wednesday, Bollywood director Sanjay Gupta was in Bangalore to shoot the promo reels for Bangalore Royal Challengers. Gupta first got Martin Crowe, the team's chief cricket officer, to give a 'pep talk' to "the boys" in a set designed like a dressing room inside the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Then the team coach, Venkatesh Prasad, was filmed giving the bowling attack, including Zaheer Khan, a strategy lesson. Finally, there was Crowe and Rahul Dravid, the captain, drawing 'gameplans' on a board. Crowe and Prasad got through their shots with professional ease but Dravid looked distinctly uncomfortable in front of the camera. To his consternation, he was later made to stretch out on the ground outside, strapped on to a crane camera apparatus, in full cricket gear, with the bat outstretched to simulate a run-out situation. The shoot will continue over the next two days.

Sourav Ganguly: Kolkata's knight in shining armour © AFP

What’s in a name, you ask. Plenty, seems to be the common refrain among the IPL’s franchise owners. In the last couple of days the Mumbai and Kolkata franchises have unveiled their team names, each apparently the product of much thought. On Tuesday, Shah Rukh Khan gave us the Kolkata Knight Riders. Works well for fans of David Hasselhoff – and fans of a certain age growing up in Calcutta in the 1980s, who got the chance to see the serial beamed across on Bangladesh TV. However, the name owes more to the medieval helmet on the team logo, the sort worn by knights of old. Interestingly, Shah Rukh’s own explanation was a bit strange – it was chosen “after thorough research” with the mindset of children in mind. More easily decipherable was the name of team’s mascot, Hoog Lee – neither Bruce Lee nor Brett Lee, as Shah Rukh said, but a terrible pun on the river that flows through the city.

On Saturday the Mumbai Indians were unveiled; the name apparently signifies team effort but not many got that, prompting Kaushik Roy, a top brand executive at Reliance Industries Limited, the franchise owners, to explain the rationale. “The name has been arrived at from the city, Sachin [Tendulkar] the super achiever and our success in Twenty20 cricket. All these elements project vision and a strong stature. Mumbai has a never-say-die attitude. Mumbai Indians is also about having pride in our city. At the end of the day, we wanted an endearing name to which even those abroad can relate.”

There are two unnamed teams - Hyderabad and Mohali - remaining in the IPL. Watch this space for more details.

Cricket match or quiz show, Shah Rukh seems to have advertisers in a tizzy © AFP

Now here’s a complicated situation that seems inspired by Indian television drama: A TV quiz show hosted by Shah Rukh Khan premieres on April 18. That’s the same day as the IPL launches, with a match between Bangalore’s Royal Challengers and Kolkata’s Knight Riders – owned by none other than Shah Rukh Khan. Given the high profile of both and Khan’s status in the Indian advertising and entertainment industry, the clash, says Business Standard, has put advertisers in a bit of a pickle – where should they park their money? Khan’s quiz show – an adaptation of the international show ‘Are you smarter than a fifth-grader’ – has telecom major Airtel as the presenting sponsor on the Star Plus channel; the IPL will be aired on the rival Sony network with Vodafone, Airtel’s leading competitor, as the presenting sponsor. The quiz show will air Friday-Sunday between 8 and 9pm, more or less primetime IPL viewing; each show is looking for associate sponsors.

Of course this is not a major issue, even accounting for the fact that the IPL’s largest fixed revenue source so far is TV ads; the Indian market is big enough for both shows. In fact a report in the Mint business daily says sponsors of the IPL telecast on Sony are signing ‘exclusivity’ deals, paying a premium to keep rivals from advertising during the telecast. The report quotes a Sony Entertainment official as confirming that Vodafone and Hyundai, one of the associate sponsors, have signed such deals; though the official does not reveal the premium involved, the paper suggests it’s in the region of US$1.7 million – that’s in addition to the normal ad-spend rates. The reason given is the relatively short nature of a Twenty20 game – 2000 seconds of ads as compared to 6000 seconds for an ODI – increasing the chances of advertising clutter. The exclusivity, a Vodafone official said, was not about blocking rivals’ airtime, but about getting adequate airtime for yourself. It appears to be an early protection against ambush marketing – made famous by the war between Coca-Cola, the official sponsor of the 1996 World Cup, and Pepsi, whose ‘Nothing official about it’ slogan made the bigger noise.

Greg Chappell: A new reality? © AFP

All the speculation surrounding Greg Chappell’s role as a coach in the IPL can perhaps now be formally ended: the former India coach has been roped in by Emerging Media, the owners of the IPL’s Jaipur franchise, to help out with the second edition of their reality show Cricket Star Twenty20.

He will be joined by Ian Frazer, the Indian team's biomechanist during Chappell's tenure, in overseeing nearly 10,000 applicants shortlisted from all over India at eight centres - cities also home to IPL teams - and select 24 to train in the Cricket Star Academy in Jaipur. The 24 chosen will be nurtured for the Twenty20 format, and the prize on offer for the winner is a contract with the Rajasthan Royals next season.

The show will be aired on the Sony network, another link with the IPL; last year, it was telecast by Zee Sports, owned by the Essel Group which runs the rival Indian Cricket League and the parting of ways was “obvious”, according to Fraser Castellino, the chief executive of Emerging Media.

More on Australian coaches - John Buchanan will be in Kolkata, where he is the franchise coach, next week, the Telegraph reports. “I'll be spending a couple of days in Calcutta (sic) ... It will be more a fact-finding mission and about making myself
familiar with what’s a new challenge."

One of players at Buchanan's disposal will be Aakash Chopra, whose scoring streak for Delhi this season continues in the Ranji Trophy one-day tournament. Chopra signed for Kolkata on Sunday, and said the Delhi Daredevils offer came a bit too late.

After the players, it's time for match officials to get ready for the IPL. The Indian board has suggested a list of 35 umpires that Srinivas Venkataraghavan, the BCCI's director of umpiring, pruned to 20. It will be further cut down to 16.

"The six Indian umpires likely to be seen in on-field action in the IPL are AM Saheba, SL Shastri, GA Pratapkumar, K Hariharan, AV Jayaprakash and I Sivaram," an umpire, who has been shortlisted, told Cricinfo. The first three are currently on the ICC's international panel of umpires, while the other three were part of the panel previously. The rest will officiate as third and fourth umpires.

The 35 umpires are : SK Tarapore, K Hariharan, AV Jayprakash, SN Bandekar, SD Ranade, AY Gokhale, CR Mohite, R Radhakrishanan, Sudhir Asnani, MSS Ranawat, Ravi Subramaniam, I Sivaram, VN Kulkarni, Sanjeev Rao, HS Sekhon, KG Laxminarayanan, Suhas Phadkar, SK Sharma, P Bhanuprakash, PS Godbole, MS Mahal, K Murali, RY Deshmukh, S Dendapani, A Bhattacharjee, S Laxmanan, Balwant Sharma, Sanjeev Dua, SM Raju, MG Mandale, Rajiv Risodkar, Anil Chaudhary, VD Nerurkar, Nandan, NRS Prabhu, RM Deshpande and MS Pathak.

The big auction may be over but the franchises are busy filling the holes in their squads. Some are confirmed signings - Delhi have drafted in Yo Mahesh, Shikhar Dhawan, Mithun Manhas, Rajat Bhatia and Mayank Tehlan. The under-19 stars Virat Kohli, Tanmay Srivastava and Pradeep Sangwan are expected to be recruited soon.

Bangalore have enlisted the services of Sunil Joshi, Balachandra Akhil, R Vinay Kumar, Bharath Chipli, J Arun Kumar, KP Appanna, Devraj Patil. Manish Pandey, part of the under-19 squad, is also expected to join soon.

Chennai have signed up Goa’s Shadab Jakati, Uttar Pradesh’s Sudeep Tyagi, R Ashwin, Anirudha Srikkanth and S Badrinath. Abhinav Mukund and Napoleon Einstein will be soon signed up.

Mumbai have taken on the Baroda wicket-keeper, Pinal Shah, along with Mumbai Ranji players Abhishek Nayar and Ajinkya Rahane and Maharashtra’s Yogesh Takawale.

Hyderabad have roped in Y Venugopala Rao, N Arjun Yadav, D Ravi Teja, Pragyan Ojha, D Kalyankrishna, P Vijay Kumar, M Sarveesh and Orissa’s Halahar Das.

Mohali have signed up VRV Singh and two under-22 players in Karan Goel and Uday Kaul.

Jaipur have brought in Pankaj Singh and Mumbai's Under-22 player Anoop Revandkar. Ravindra Jadeja, part of the victorious Under-19 squad, has been linked with Jaipur.

Then there’s the signing about to happen: Former India opener Aakash Chopra, currently in rich form, is set to play for the Kolkata team. “The contract is more or less final. I only have to sign the contract to complete the formalities,” Chopra told IANS.

Chopra may seem a surprise choice for Twenty20 given that he has not always been known for fiery batting but, this season, he’s had his shares of fours and sixes and his form seems to have extended to one-day games. On Thursday, he scored 130 off 140 balls, including 18 boundaries, against Punjab in the Ranji Trophy north zone one-day championship. His coach Tarak Sinha says the change of pace in his batting is deliberate, to suit the shorter versions of the game.

Finally, the wishful thinking: Vijay Mallya, who owns the Bangalore Royal Challengers, says Andrew Flintoff and Monty Panesar will be his targets should English players get official sanction to join the IPL. in the targeted by the Indian Premier League. “I would love to buy an Andrew Flintoff or a [Dimitri] Mascarenhas or Panesar. They would be superstars in India,” Mallya told the Sunday Times. They could, he added, earn up to US$1.5 million – what Mahendra Singh Dhoni, currently the IPL’s highest-paid player , will make this season.

The IPL has been a lightning-conductor for controversy and bitter dispute but Adam Gilchrist believes it has a peacemaking role to play. The club structure includes players from different countries in the same team and Gilchrist feels that could ease tensions between players who are currently at loggerheads. “That [the IPL] is going to be an opportunity for players around the world to get to meet, know and understand opposition cultures and customs,’ Gilchrist told the Sunday Telegraph in Sydney. “I think that's going to be a very positive off-shoot of the IPL. Any world XI team I've ever played in there's always been a great camaraderie in the rooms.''

There’s ample scope for that, as the Telegraph noted; in a quirk of fate, or a marketing man’s dream, the Australian captain, Ricky Ponting, will join Ishant Sharma, the teenage Indian bowler who has been his chief tormentor this summer, in playing for the Kolkata team. Over in Chennai, the Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, will pad up alongside Matthew Hayden, whose run-ins with his players have made the headlines of late. So the “summer of discontent’, as the paper calls it, may give way to a season of détente. Now that may give the IPL’s detractors something to smile about!

Will Greg Chappell be reunited with his alter ego, Rahul Dravid? A report in the Kolkata-based Telegraph says Chappell is being wooed by the Royal Challengers of Bangalore. Chappell and Dravid were master and commander of the Indian team, working closely to oversee a phenomenal streak in ODIs and Tests before things went pear-shaped and coach and captain quit within months of each other. Chappell is back in India, heading the Rajasthan Cricket Association’s academy in Jaipur and the initial buzz was that he would coach the Jaipur team. That job has gone to Shane Warne, who will also captain the side, but the Telegraph says Chappell may come over to Bangalore, where he will be greeted by other familiar faces - Anil Kumble, Wasim Jaffer and Zaheer Khan. Nor will he be a stranger to the city – this is where he was based during his tenure as India coach.