On the day the Indian Premier League began amid outrageous glitz and a world-record innings from Brendon McCullum, it emerged that an English version of the competition will almost certainly be based on the 18 first-class counties plus a handful of overseas sides rather than the city/franchise system adopted by the IPL.
As the England and Wales Cricket Board continues to consider how to respond to the game's upheaval, officials were expressing concern at the financial implications of overhauling a domestic infrastructure that revolves around the counties, as well as the potential lack of support for city teams.
The ECB is looking at all options and is interested in finding out which offers the most value from a cricketing and commercial standpoint," the chief executive, David Collier, said here in India yesterday. Crucially he added: "The ECB constitution says that all 18 counties have to play in ECB competitions."
The board is not ruling out the involvement of foreign businessmen, whose investment will probably be needed in a package capable of attracting a multimillion-dollar TV deal, although next summer's Twenty20 World Cup, followed by the Ashes, means a putative English Premier League would not start until 2010.
As the ECB looks at ways of mollifying its centrally contracted players, furious to be following the IPL at home on TV rather than lining their pockets in India, it was also confirmed that England's $20m (£10.1m) winner-takes-all Twenty20 match in Antigua against the Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford's West Indies All-Stars may be played as early as October.
Victory in that game could net the players more in a day than most cricketers here in India are earning in over seven weeks, although a window of a fortnight might in any case now be open next April for England's players to take part in the second year of the IPL. Participation in a competition which Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, has repeatedly said is out of bounds for England's centrally contracted cricketers until 2010 at the earliest would be at the discretion of the coach, Peter Moores.
But for all the well-meaning - if belated - intentions, it was hard yesterday evening to imagine an international event in England matching the IPL for sheer unadulterated hype. The opening ceremony in itself was worth the entrance fee, the laser show and firework display providing a devastating counterpoint to the feeble efforts at Lord's at the start of the 1999 World Cup. And then McCullum thrashed a murderous undefeated 158 not out from 73 balls - the highest score in five years of Twenty20 cricket anywhere in the world - as the Kolkata Knight Riders racked up 222 for three after being asked to bat first by Rahul Dravid, the captain of the Bangalore Royal Challengers.
Not even the most outlandish pre-tournament hype could have written this script. As his team-mates - including Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting - tried but failed to join in the fun at the other end, McCullum almost outdid the opening ceremony for explosiveness with a succession of pulls and drives that brought him 10 fours and 13 sixes and the Royal Challengers to their knees. By the end of the innings, which he completed with a mow for one last six over long-on off Praveen Kumar, even the locals had been won over.
"I could hardly feel my legs for the first eight or nine balls, I was so nervous," he said afterwards, and immediately signalled to Wriddhiman Saha, a 23-year-old keeper-batsman from Bengal, to take over the gloves. Barring something extra special in the next three matches, McCullum will now earn the right to wear a special orange helmet designated for the leading runscorer after each round of matches. The Tour de France's yellow jersey it is not, but cricket will have plenty of time to get used to the gimmicks.
The Challengers' reply was a non-event. Dravid lost his leg stump in the second over to India's 19-year-old pace-bowling prodigy Ishant Sharma, and when Jacques Kallis dragged Ajit Agarkar to mid-on it was 24 for three. The rest barely troubled the scorers en route to 82 all out, but McCullum had already given the IPL the start it craved.
New era: the verdict
The contest
The players cared all right. It took Zaheer Khan only one ball to give Brendon McCullum the glare. When Ashley Noffke had figures of 0.1-0-11-0 he looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him up. 7/10
The support
The stadium was packed, but the biggest cheer was when Sachin Tendulkar signed a declaration affirming the MCC's spirit of cricket. 8/10
The glitz
Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, owner of the Kolkata franchise, was joined in the crowd by fellow actor Preity Zinta, co-owner of Mohali. Washington Redskins cheerleaders danced; Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Bollywood music directors, sang. 8/10
The conclusion
Could hardly have been better. The opening ceremony and McCullum's innings will be talked about for years. 9/10
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