Fans and critics would expect nothing else from this revolutionary form of Twenty20 cricket; it's either wake-up call or death knock.

With security unable to be guaranteed in India for a sport which is now a frontline terror target, organisers were forced to shift the five-week, eight-team, 59-match tournament to South Africa.

For Eden Gardens and Wankhede, now read Wanderers and Centurion.

Befitting a competition conceived in one of the world's more volatile sporting regions, the IPL splashes the cash and shrugs off the consequences.

The tournament will not feature any Pakistan players, banned by their own government in the aftermath of November's terrorist attacks in Mumbai which sparked a deterioration in relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

Meanwhile, IPL chairman Lalit Modi, under fire for shifting the event to a different continent, will require his own beefed-up security after reports his life was under threat from India's underworld.

The IPL's riches have not been entirely successful in their seduction techniques.

Much to the delight of the traditionalists, the likes of Australians Nathan Bracken, Brett Lee and Andrew Symonds will miss the first three weeks because of the ODI series against Pakistan in the UAE.