So who is going to win the IPL? The bookmakers unite in making Delhi the 4-1 favourites but then the waters get muddied. Deccan, Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore are all wavering between 4-1 and 7-1 depending who you go to and then a little back on 8-1 or 9-1 are Punjab, Kolkata and Rajasthan.
Cricket Bet Live, the specialist cricket-betting site, are the most generous if you fancy Rajasthan, the 2008 winners, offering 10-1, but they are less generous on some of the favourites. Can Shane Warne, who seems to spend most of his time gambling these days, upset the odds again?
Michael Lumb may not be a familiar name outside of Hampshire, but the Rajasthan batsman is the favourite with Blue Square to be the top scorer of the eight English players in the league, at odds of 5-2.
In part that is because Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood will miss half the tournament, but how many games will Lumb play? There are only four slots allowed for foreigners per game and Warne will take one of them for Rajasthan. Graeme Smith will be another certainty.
That leaves two slots for eight overseas players to fight for. I'd have thought Shane Watson, Morne Morkel and Adam Voges would be ahead of Lumb, who is possibly preferable to Johan Botha, Damien Martyn, Shaun Tait and Dimi Mascarenhas. But the bookies make Lumb 6-1 second-favourite to be Rajasthan's top scorer and with not many recognised big hitters in their side, he could sneak in. Then it is up to him.
Eoin Morgan is 3-1 to be the top English batsman, but he also faces a selection fight. Bangalore have four fine Indian batsmen (Dravid, Uthappa, Kohli, Pandey). Jacques Kallis and Pietersen, when he arrives, will also be certainties in the top order, which leaves Morgan scrapping with Ross Taylor to be first off the bench if someone is injured.
Likewise, how many games will Ravi Bopara play for Punjab? He did well in the IPL last year, but Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena and Brett Lee will probably get three of the four places.
Bopara, Shaun Marsh, James Hopes and Adrian Barath will contest one batting place and, anyway, the final overseas slot could go to Yusuf Abdullah, who bowled well last season.
Bopara and Lumb need games to squeak into the England squad for the World Twenty20, as does the out-of-favour Owais Shah, who didn't get a single outing for Delhi in the IPL last season. He has now moved to Kolkata, who need all the help they can get after a dire 2009 season, but more bench-warming awaits with Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Ajantha Mendis and Angelo Mathews more attractive starting options.
One final market of interest: how much will Pietersen mess things up for Bangalore? Last year, Bangalore lost four of their six games that he played in and won seven of the ten after he left.
By the time that Pietersen arrives this year, Bangalore will have between eight and ten games left, depending on them reaching the play-offs, and Cricket Bet Live have put the win/loss market on those games at 5.5 wins (ie, the same odds are offered on them winning six or losing five of them).