Cricket’s most colourful, controversial and glitziest tournament in the world returns to ITV4 this spring.
Known for its glamour and razzmatazz, the revolutionary Indian Premier League is now in its fifth year, and ITV4 will be showing 72 of the 76 games live, with highlights of the other matches.
IPL 5’s opening match takes place on Wednesday 4th April, and will feature 2011 champions Chennai Super Kings starting the defence of their title against Sachin Tendulkar’s Mumbai Indians.
The seven-week tournament concludes with the final, which will be held in Chennai on Sunday 27th May.
Following the termination of the Kochi Tuskers franchise in the off-season, nine teams will compete for the IPL title in 2012, all featuring a wealth of cricketing stars from across the globe.
Major stars of the game including Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Chris Gayle, Kevin Pietersen, Lasith Malinga and Kumar Sangakkara will all be involved in this year’s competition, along with Sussex and England all-rounder Luke Wright (Pune Warriors), and Essex batsman Owais Shah (Rajasthan Royals).
It is ITV’s third year of covering the competition, and Matt Smith and Shonali Nagrani will return as the main presenters of ITV4’s comprehensive coverage.
Smith, who has been part of ITV4’s IPL presenting line-up since they started covering the tournament in 2010, said: “I can’t wait for the big hitting madness to start again. The Indian Premier League really is compulsive viewing.”
The team of presenters will also include former England Women’s cricketer Isa Guha, who made her debut as a pundit during last year’s competition, as well as experienced sports broadcasters Angus Scott and Mark Pougatch.
Regular analysts include former England captain Alec Stewart and West Indian great Clive Lloyd, along with ‘The Analyst’ Simon Hughes and a host of former England stars including Mark Butcher, Dominic Cork, Vikram Solanki, Mark Ramprakash and John Emburey, who will all cast their expert eyes over proceedings throughout the tournament.
ITV’s coverage begins with a special preview programme on the eve of the competition on April 3rd (9pm, ITV4), presented from Lord’s by Matt Smith and Isa Guha. They will be joined by Dominic Cork to reflect on last year’s IPL, and look ahead to what is in store for the 2012 edition.
The live action begins on the following afternoon at 2.45pm, including highlights from the opening ceremony with a performance by American popstar Katy Perry, followed by the first game between the defending champions Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, who are the reigning Twenty20 Champions League title holders.
Commentators throughout the tournament will include Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Harsha Bhogle, Sanjay Manjrekar, Tom Moody, Robin Jackman, Kepler Wessels, HD Ackerman, Dermot Reeve, Ramiz Raja, Danny Morrison, Simon Doull, Craig McMillan, Pommie Mbangwa and Alastair Campbell.
ITV signed a long-term deal to cover the IPL on the eve of last year’s tournament, with the broadcaster also set to cover the next two editions in 2013 and 2014.
Niall Sloane, ITV’s Director of Sport, said: “The Indian Premier League never fails to enthral. It is a wonderful competition and celebration of cricket at its most vibrant.”
The IPL is the only live televised cricket available to viewers without a Sky Sports subscription, and ITV’s coverage has attracted impressive viewing figures over the past two years, peaking at over 800,000 for key games during last year’s competition.
For more information, visit ITV’s Indian Premier League website: itv.com/cricket
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Indian commentary whether on internationals or the IPL is completely dreadful.
Ravi Shastri being by far and away the worst.
Although I have been a follower of test cricket for many years, I have enjoyed watching the IPL for the past two years. The only problem is that for a lot of the time I have to watch it with the sound off. The reason for this is the appalling Danny Morrison! His voice and stupid remarks totally put me off, I have to turn the sound up when I think that he might not be on the microphone. The IPL can learn a lot from test match special commentators, who are informative and entertaining at the same time. Please, please get rid of Morrison, I don’t think I can manage to carry on watching IPL if he continues.
I have to completely disagree with you Georgina dear thing. He’s zany and a breath of fresh air compared with the staid presentation of TMS. The obnoxious and big headed Sir Geoffrey and the most annoying of all commentators Henry ‘Blowers’ Blofeld who should just stop his incessant wittering. Aggers on the other hand is a legend having to put up with both of them :-)