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Cape Town - The attention of the cricketing world turns to the subcontinent and the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), starting on Saturday.
The eight-team tournament has quickly grown into one of the world's biggest sporting spectacle's, with teams turning players into millionaires overnight.
All the talk in recent weeks has been the banning of Australia pair Steve Smith and David Warner from this year's event for their part in the recent ball-tampering scandal that rocked world cricket to its core.
Both players stood to bank a cool $1.8 million. Ouch!
In addition, Australian speedster Mitchell Starc has withdrawn with an injury. He was due to pocket $1.4 million.
Indian darlings Virat Kohli ($2.7m) and MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma (both $2.4m) are the highest paid players.
So who's favourite for the title?
The Mumbai Indians are the defending champions - and are three-time winners over the history of the tournament - are rightly are the bookies' favourites (77/2) to repeat as victors.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore (39/10) are expected to run them closest, while even the lowest ranked side, the Kings XI Punjab (31/4) cannot be discounted.
