BANGALORE, April 17: Having weathered a boycott threat from the media and numerous other controversies, the Indian Premier League is all set to roll with a heady mix of cricket and glamour on show in the opening match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Bangalore Royal Challengers here on Friday.

The Shah Rukh Khan-owned Knight Riders and Vijay Mallya’s Royal Challengers will kick off the 44-day Twenty20 tournament that has several international stars playing alongside the best of Indian domestic cricket and under-19 rookies.

Led by two former Indian captains — Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid — who currently don’t have a fixed place in the ODI squad, it will be intriguing to see how the Knight Riders and Royal Challengers match up to each other in the floodlit Twenty20 contest.

Knight Riders also features the flamboyance of Australian skipper Ricky Ponting besides Indian teen pace sensation Ishant Sharma, who has just recovered from a finger injury.

They will, however, miss star Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar who is facing a ban over violation of code of conduct and is therefor unable to feature in the league.

The Bangalore team may not have as big a star as Ponting in its fold but the presence of players like South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis and Indian Test skipper Anil Kumble makes it a formidable unit.

Kumble, though, is likely to miss the lung-opener, as he recuperates from a groin injury picked up during the recent series against South Africa.

But more than the cricket, it is the whopping money at stake that has been making headlines. The winner of the tournament is all set to take home Rs 4 crore, while even the last-placed team would end up with Rs 40 lakh in its kitty.

Millions were spent during the players’ auction, which made some cricketers feel like livestock.

The money on offer also ignited a debate on whether the players will be able to keep their country above IPL as a few weeks of cricket was offering them several folds more than what they are earning through their central contracts right now.—Agencies