IPL 4 begins tomorrow 8th April 2011, with opening match in Chennai. Each of the 10 teams play 14 games with 7 home and 7 away. Making it 70 matches. There would be 4 more maches to determine the winner of IPL 4, the final match to be held on 28th May in Mumbai. The format for the final 4 teams is slightly different with the top 2 teams getting an extra chance to qualify for the final thus getting to the top 2 positions important in league phase.
The top 3 teams of course qualify for the Champions Trophy, later this year.
12 Cities play host to the matches. Pune team has their home base in Navi Mumbai and Kochi team plays couple of matches in Indore while Kings XI Punjab play few matches in Dharamsala. With 74 matches in 50 days it would be a tough schedule for every team, what with travelling across India
With Lalit Modi, the architect of the first 3 versions, nowhere to be seen it would be a different tournament at least from the glamor point of view. Which is good as well as concentration would be on good cricket rather than good looking models and parties.
My predictions – Mostly based on team compositions, players, captains and coaches and mostly gut feeling.
MI, RCB, PSW and CSK as the top 4 and Kochi and Rajasthan Royals the bottom 2.
Just a wild guess. Lets see.
Let the fun begin.