It's that time of the year again. In the past few weeks we've had a player getting banned from the IPL, while protesting his innocence (Ravindra Jadeja), we've had Lalit Modi being cut to size by Shashank Manohar in the matter of adding new franchises, we've had Lalit Modi get into yet another slanging match with the media on broadcast rights, and before that at the IPL auctions, the Pakistan playing fraternity being up in arms against India in general and Lalit Modi in particular over the non-inclusion of their players in any of the franchises.Four controversies, three of them involving Modi. In other words, the surest sign that the IPL is around the corner.It has returned to India after spending a year abroad, but unlike brash young children who come back wordly-wise and mature, the IPL - still in a state of infancy - promises to be brasher still.Beyond all the hoopla, the length of the cheerleaders' skirts or the cut of their cleavages, the after-match parties that will reportedly be telecast on TV, and the inevitable sight of Lalit Modi being telecast twice per innings in every match, the IPL is still about cricket.And everyone connected with it - fans, followers, administrators, players - would do well to remember that. There is not much chance of the players putting cricket on the second or third rungs of their focus, or at least, if a cricketer does do that, there is a good chance he will not be allowed to do it for any length of time. Cast your eye over the eight captains who are leading the teams this year: MS Dhoni, Anil Kumble, Gautam Gambhir, Kumar Sangakkara, Sachin Tendulkar, Adam Gilchrist, Sourav Ganguly and Shane Warne.Not a single one of those individuals have ever put winning as a lesser priority than anything else, and any player playing under them can expect to be shown the boot quickly if he does not put in his full effort for the matches.Of the eight though, only one will be smiling on the 25th of April.Over the past two years, the winner has always been the most unlikely team. In 2008, Rajasthan were the clear underdogs, and were expected to be everybody's whipping boys and in 2009 the Deccan Chargers were coming in after the most abysmal performance in 2008. If I was a cynic and thought these victories were scripted to ensure that the underdog always won, then it would be easy to pin-point the winners for 2010, which would of course be none other than the Kolkata Knight Riders!However, shedding aside the cynic hat for the time being, the teams this time look more evenly balanced than last time around. I had attempted a similar exercise last year [