Cashing in: India wicketkeeper Mahendra Dhoni may only have played 26 Tests but the £759,000 a year he'll get from the Chennai Super Kings will make him IPL's top paid player
Their outlook changed during the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa last September. A hugely successful fortnight ended with India lifting the trophy, by beating arch-rivals Pakistan in the final - and a billion excited followers crammed in front of their TV sets underlined the enormous potential.
The 'rebel' Indian Cricket League, set up to satisfy a television company miffed at missing out on mainstream TV rights, swiftly followed. Then, with the intention of killing off the ICL, came the IPL, gaining backing from both the Indian board and the ICC.
How much money is involved in IPL?
The numbers are mind-boggling. Through selling TV rights and franchises the Indian Board have already made £800million and the top bounty paid to a player for this first tournament was £759,000 - handed over by Chennai to secure the services of India's Mahendra Dhoni. Australia's Andrew Symonds is the highest-paid overseas player on £683,000 for his six weeks of work.
Will it succeed?
Well, it had better considering the players have signed up for three years and TV rights have been sold for 10.
There is a huge appetite for limited overs cricket in India. What nobody knows, though, is whether the players will be as passionate about representing Kolkata Knight Riders as, say, Australia. And will fans support a South African, for example, over Sachin Tendulkar in their opposition's colours.
So how long before England's top players are involved?
Sooner rather than later is the obvious answer.
Despite the attempts of ECB chairman Giles Clarke to rule out next year, there are signs of a softening in England's stance.
Limited involvement seems possible in 2009 while 2010 should see them playing a full part. England captain Michael Vaughan admitted this week: "Eng-land players will end up in the IPL, whether it is next year or the 2010."
Is it a threat to world cricket, then?
Yes ... and no. Domestic cricket, particularly English domestic cricket, is likely to suffer because the best over-seas players can now earn a fortune from playing a few weeks of Twenty20 and will not need to do the hard yards of a full county season.
And there will be more home players doing a Dimitri Mascarenhas next year - missing games here to go to India.
But, Test cricket looks safe. It is still the game every player aspires to. "I would never, ever jeopardise my England career to play in India," said Pietersen.
How will English cricket chiefs respond?
Carefully, as is their way. "We don't want a knee-jerk reaction to the IPL," said Clarke. "But we believe we can set up a competition of our own which won't affect Test and one-day international cricket."
The ECB are looking at how they can relaunch Twenty20 here as an England Premier League, presumably involving more overseas players and freeing up the likes of Pietersen and Flintoff to appear in it. And their meeting this week with Texan billionaire Allen Stanford was particularly interesting.
Stanford's idea of a winner-takes-all £10m challenge match between England and his All-Stars team in the Caribbean next winter was met with approval and is now "very likely", according to Clarke.
