Kolkata could be dark horses

The fourth edition of the all-singing, all-dancing Indian Premier League begins on Friday with Chennai Super Kings out to defend their title against a bevy of would be champions. The tournament promises to be high on entertainment as always, but working out who might come out on top looks an altogether more difficult task.

Bet365 have Mumbai Indians, led by the great Sachin Tendulkar as 9/2 favourites, with the Super Kings next at 11/2, the Kolkata Knight Riders and Bangalore Royal Challengers 6/1, Pune Warriors 7/1 and Deccan Chargers 8s. They will give you 9/1 on Kochi Tuskers Kerala and 10/1 on the Delhi Daredevils, while Kings XI Punjab and Shane Warne's Rajasthan Royals bringing up the rear on 14/1.

I don't like writing off any team that includes Warne because even at 41 he is worth a couple of wickets a game and his leadership is inventive. The Royals won the inaugural event in 2008 but their squad looks a bit on the light side in terms of match-winners.

Tendulkar's Indians deserve to be favourites with a squad that includes Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga, Munaf Patel and Kieron Pollard of West Indies. But the big question everyone has to ask themselves is what effect the seven weeks of World Cup will have on the big names? Will India's players be on top of the world or exhausted? Will Sri Lanka's stars be dejected or more motivated than ever?

Another thing to remember is that each side must consist of seven Indian players, so there will be a lot of rotation of big names and how a side does will depend a lot on their strength in depth and their home strength.

India's triumphant captain, MS Dhoni, will lead a strong Chennai Super Kings side but I like the look of the Kolkata Knight Riders, led by Gautam Gambhir. The Riders have Brad Haddin, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Yusuf Pathan and Ryan ten Doeschate at their disposal and any one of them can win a match on his own. At 6/1, with bet365 offering 1/3 the odds the first two they could be better value than the top two in the market.

The two new teams in the competition - Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers Kerala - will both be ultra-keen to do well. Of those two, Pune, led by Yuvraj, in some of the best form of his life, will be the most dangerous, but I would also be wary of a good effort from the Bangalore Royal Challengers.

I have a lot of time for Daniel Vettori, their captain, while they also have Tillekeratne Dilshan, the leading scorer in the World Cup, AB De Villiers and Zaheer Khan (joint top wicket-taker) in their ranks.