The new Indian Premier League season launches today, and you can follow all the action throughout season four exclusively on ITV.
As in 2010, Matt Smith will lead ITV’s coverage, but he will be joined by a new co-presenter – Indian actress and cricket presenter Shonali Nagrani.
They will be joined in the studio by a host of big names from the world of cricket throughout the tournament.
ITV will be screening every game live on ITV4 and ITV.com, building up to the final on 28th May.
Friday’s opening match between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders is the first of each of this year’s 74 IPL matches, to be broadcast free-to-air on ITV4 and simulcast live on ITV.com.
ITV’s studio analysts will include broadcaster and journalist Simon Hughes, current England Twenty20 captain Paul Collingwood, and former England internationals Alec Stewart, Mark Butcher, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Vikram Solanki.
Shonali Nagrani (above) replaces last year’s female c0-host Mandira Bedi, who is pregnant with her first child and is unable to travel.
As well as being an actress and former Miss India, Shonali has presented live cricket for ESPN Star Sports across the sub-continent, including the IPL, Cricket World Cup and World T20 matches.
All the latest news, fixtures, results, live video, blogs and additional background to cricket’s most explosive competition can be found on ITV’s dedicated Indian Premier League website – itv.com/ipl.
The 2011 season will be played across 12 venues in India, and sees the addition of two new franchises – the Kochi Tuskers Kerala and the Pune Warriors.
The competition attracts some of the world’s greatest players and in 2011 will include Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, Daniel Vettori, Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Graeme Smith, along with English players including Michael Lumb, Eoin Morgan and Owais Shah.
ITV signed a four-year deal to screen the Indian Premier League last week.
The network made its first foray into cricket last year, when ITV4 screened last year’s IPL, followed later in the year with highlights of England’s victorious Ashes campaign Down Under.
IPL 3 was a surprising success for ITV4 last year. It was the first live cricket to be shown on terrestrial television for five years.
Impressive viewing figures throughout last year’s competition led to many media analysts suggesting that there is still a huge appetite for the game on terrestrial television.
Chennai Super Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders – live from Chennai, 2.45pm, on ITV4 and ITV.com
Follow ITV Cricket on Twitter – ITVCricket
