Star studded IPL opening ceremony today

Hrithik Roshan will be one of the performers at the IPL8 opening ceremony. Photo: IPL official Twitter handle

Kolkata — While its scandalous past seasons still quite fresh in memory the Indian Premier League organisers will look to ensure that the focus remains firmly on cricket when the cash-rich event gets underway with a glamorous opening ceremony featuring top Bollywood superstars on Tuesday.

After pulling off a controversy-free tournament last year the organisers would again be hoping for a smooth run when the 47-day tournament marred by a spot-fixing scandal in 2013 kickstarts with defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders taking on Mumbai Indians at Eden Gardens on Wednesday.

Before that the event will open on Tuesday night with a glittering ceremony where Bollywood superstars Hrithik Roshan Shahid Kapoor and Anushka Sharma form a power-packed line-up of performers.

However there is a high possibility of rain and thunderstorm interrupting the opening ceremony at the Salt Lake Stadium on Tuesday according to the Met office.

But that hasn’t dampened the spirit of popular Bollywood music composer Pritam who landed on the city of his birth on Monday to perform at the inaugural ceremony. “Landed in Kolkata. Performing in IPL opening ceremony. Always feels good to come back home” Pritam wrote on social networking site Twitter. During the two-hour show actor-director Farhan Akhtar will sing some of his biggest hits with his band while actor Saif Ali Khan son of Indian cricketing legend Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi will host the show and introduce the cricketers and stars.

Pritam who is in charge of the overall music of the ceremony will also be performing live.

In addition Ash King (born Ashutosh Ganguly) the London-based Indian-origin singer will also be part of Pritam’s act.

Meanwhile security will be tight for the grand opening of the event. With CCTV cameras monitoring round-the-clock strict vigil on movement around players’ dressing rooms with hundreds of cops posted in and around the stadium — the city police have put in place elaborate security arrangements.

When the actual show begins on the cricket field on Wednesday all eyes will be on teammates who were bitter rivals till a few days back Down Under. David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan will share the dressing room at Sunrisers Hyderabad putting behind their spat in Australia recently.

As the international rivals become friends there will be some who will be hungry for success as the tournament provides an ideal launchpad ahead of next year’s World Twenty20 in India around the same time.

There will be some veteran Indian warhorses likes Virender Sehwag Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan who will see this as a chance to make an Indian comeback.

The Indian selectors might think otherwise but the IPL teams clearly believes in the 33-year-old Yuvraj as he was bought for a record Rs 16 crores by Delhi Daredevils.