Indian Premier League 2013 – Live on ITV4

World cricket’s most colourful, controversial and glamourous competition returns to ITV as the 2013 edition of the Indian Premier League takes place on the sub-continent.

Another hectic month-and-a-half awaits for some of the sport’s biggest names as they get ready to blend sublime skills with brute power for the biggest T20 competition of them all.

Known for its glamour and razzmatazz, the revolutionary IPL is now in its sixth year and ITV4 will be showing live free-to-air coverage of 72 of the 76 games during the seven-week long festival of T20 cricket, with the four other matches exclusively live on ITV.com.

IPL 6’s opening match takes place on Wednesday, April 4 and sees last year’s champions Kolkata Knight Riders take on Delhi Daredevils at the famous Eden Gardens ground in Kolkata.

Kolkata will fancy their chances of going for back-to-back IPL titles this year having assembled a strong squad, including a mix of wise old heads such as Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Brad Haddin as well as exciting youngsters, led by captain Gautam Gambhir.

Delhi boast a very strong batting line-up, including Australia’s David Warner, although they also won’t have the services of Kevin Pietersen as he recovers from injury ahead of an important Ashes summer.

Despite the loss of Pietersen to the Daredevils, England will still have a sprinkling of representation in this season’s competition.

Batsman Eoin Morgan contracted to defending champions Kolkata, Sussex all-rounder Luke Wright will represent Pune Warriors, while Owais Shah plays for the Rajasthan Royals.

The Royals have never challenged for the trophy since Shane Warne led them to the inaugural IPL title in 2008, so they won’t be lacking for motivation this season.

They have a squad that could pose a lot of problems for opposition teams, particularly their fast bowling stocks which feature frightening pacemen Fidel Edwards and Shaun Tait.

Pune Warriors have been hit hard by the loss of Australia captain Michael Clarke through injury, although they still boast a decent batting line-up featuring Yuvraj Singh, England’s Luke Wright and New Zealand’s Ross Taylor.

Other big names to look out for include Chennai Super Kings, who are one of the IPL’s most successful teams, having taken the title in 2010 and 2011 and falling just short last year.

They possess an intimidatingly strong squad, with T20 specialists such as Dirk Nannes and Dwayne Bravo joining genuine superstars like MS Dhoni, Mike Hussey and Ravindra Jadeja.

Big-spending Mumbai Indians recently splashed $1 million on Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell. They also have legendary Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting in their side.

Throw in the world’s undisputed best T20 bowler in Lasith Malinga and one of the most valuable all-rounders in Kieron Pollard and Mumbai are will be confident of improving on their third place from last season.

Royal Challengers Bangalore will rely heavily on big-hitting opener Chris Gayle, while newcomers Sunrisers Hyderabad make their debut in the IPL for 2013, replacing Deccan Chargers.

The new outfit have assembled an impressive team for their debut season, featuring international stars like Kumar Sangakarra, Daly Steyn and Darren Sammy to compliment a host of locals headlined by Shikhar Dhawan.

Following 72 group stage games between all ten of the competing teams, the tournament will come to a spectacular conclusion with the play-offs, featuring the top four teams, followed by the showpiece final, which will be held at Eden Gardens on Sunday, May 26.

With its copious dose of Bollywood and razzmatazz, along with super sixes and dashing fours, the cricketing world will not not be same this Spring.

Details of how to to follow the 2013 IPL on ITV4:

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ITV4 will screen 72 of the 76 matches from IPL 2013 exclusively live in its fourth year of covering the competition.

The other four games, which clash with British Touring Car Championship coverage, will be shown live online via ITV.com, as will all of ITV4’s live games.

Matt Smith and Shonali Nagrani (above) will return as the main presenters of ITV4’s studio-based coverage.

They will share presenting duties Angus Scott, Mark Pougatch and former England women’s international Isa Guha during the seven-week tournament.

Studio analysts and guests will include Mark Ramprakash, Mark Butcher, Alec Stewart, Dominic Cork, Vikram Solanki and Simon Hughes.

Former India batsman turned top cricket broadcaster and journalist Aakash Chopra also joins the ITV team for the 2013 competition.

ITV4’s coverage also includes a series of special programmes looking back at some of the key moments in the short but spectacular history of the IPL, all presented by Simon Hughes.

The live action begins on Wednesday, April 4, at 2.45pm with live coverage of Kolkata Knight Riders against Delhi Daredevils. The show also includes highlights from the opening ceremony.

Commentators from the host broadcaster in India will include Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar, Kepler Wessels, Rameez Raja, Sanjay Manjrekar, Darren Ganga, Simon Doull, Harsha Bhogle, Alan Wilkins, Robin Jackman, HD Ackerman, Danny Morrison, L Sivaramakrishnan, Pommie Mbangwa, Craig McMillan, Ian Bishop and Alastair Campbell.

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