A buzz at the Hilton Towers

"And there's a Duleep final going on behind," I said to Aakash Chopra as he walked out of the Wankhede Stadium after the first day's play of the Duleep Trophy final. I knew Chopra would see where I was coming from. "And there's a Duleep final going on," he echoed. We were seeing the sign of the times.

We were outside the BCCI office, the hub of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which you have to pass when you are coming out of the Wankhede Stadium. About 50 journalists, including camera-persons, more than the audience present at the Duleep match, had gathered outside the office because there was a private meeting going on to brief the franchises on how to go about with the bidding process supposed to start today.

Although a bit wary, the players are not grudging IPL the attention it is getting. It is an opportunity to earn money, financial security, and also play against international players at a bigger stage. Today could well be the most important day for what is supposed to be the "future" of cricket. The franchises will flex the money power today, and as long as they spend not more than US$5m and not less that US$3.3m they can buy any players from the list of 78 international players and from the domestic pool.

They will have to buy at least four players from their catchment area, and at least four Under-22 players. Even if they buy four U-22 cricketers from their catchment area, they will fulfil that stipulation.

All is set here at the Hilton Towers in Mumbai where the bidding will happen. Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, and IS Bindra, the grounds and infrastructure chairman of the IPL, are already here. Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, TA Sekar, a bowling coach with the the MRF pace academy who is with the Delhi franchise, and VB Chandrashekhar, a selector with the Chennai franshise, are here too.

We are about 20 minutes from the starting of the bidding process, and we will bring to you live via this blog whatever we have access to, and whenever.