The inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League kicks off with Kolkata Knight Riders taking on Bangalore Royal Challengers M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore in 3 days.

Fixtures

April 18 - Bangalore Royal Challengers v Kolkata Knight Riders at Bangalore
April 19 - Kings XI Punjab v Chennai Super Kings at Mohali
April 19 - Delhi Daredevils v Rajasthan Royals at Delhi
April 20 - Kolkata Knight Riders v Deccan Chargers at Kolkata
April 20 - Mumbai Indians v Bangalore Royal Challengers at Mumbai
April 21 - Rajasthan Royals v Kings XI Punjab at Jaipur
April 22 - Deccan Chargers v Delhi Daredevils at Hyderabad
April 23 - Chennai Super Kings v Mumbai Indians at Chennai
April 24 - Deccan Chargers v Rajasthan Royals at Hyderabad
April 25 - Kings XI Punjab v Mumbai Indians at Mohali
April 26 - Chennai Super Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders at Chennai
April 26 - Bangalore Royal Challengers v Rajasthan Royals at Bangalore
April 27 - Kings XI Punjab v Delhi Daredevils at Mohali
April 27 - Mumbai Indians v Deccan Chargers at Mumbai
April 28 - Bangalore Royal Challengers v Chennai Super Kings at Bangalore
April 29 - Kolkata Knight Riders v Mumbai Indians at Kolkata
April 30 - Delhi Daredevils v Bangalore Royal Challengers at Delhi
May 1 - Rajasthan Royals v Kolkata Knight Riders at Jaipur
May 1 - Deccan Chargers v Kings XI Punjab at Hyderabad
May 2 - Chennai Super Kings v Delhi Daredevils at Chennai
May 3 – Bangalore Royal Challengers v Deccan Chargers at Bangalore
May 3 - Kings XI Punjab v Kolkata Knight Riders at Mohali
May 4 - Mumbai Indians v Delhi Daredevils at Mumbai
May 4 - Rajasthan Royals v Chennai Super Kings at Jaipur
May 5 - Bangalore Royal Challengers v Kings XI Punjab at Bangalore
May 6 - Chennai Super Kings v Deccan Chargers at Chennai
May 7 - Mumbai Indians v Rajasthan Royals at Mumbai
May 8 - Delhi Daredevils v Chennai Super Kings at Delhi
May 8 - Kolkata Knight Riders v Bangalore Royal Challengers at Kolkata
May 9 - Rajasthan Royals v Deccan Chargers at Jaipur
May 10 - Chennai Super Kings v Kings XI Punjab at Chennai
May 11 - Deccan Chargers v Kolkata Knight Riders at Hyderabad
May 11 - Rajasthan Royals v Delhi Daredevils at Jaipur
May 12 - Kings XI Punjab v Bangalore Royal Challengers at Mohali
May 13 - Kolkata Knight Riders v Delhi Daredevils at Kolkata
May 14 - Mumbai Indians v Chennai Super Kings at Mumbai
May 15 - Delhi Daredevils v Deccan Chargers at Delhi
May 16 - Mumbai Indians v Kolkata Knight Riders at Mumbai
May 17 - Rajasthan Royals v Bangalore Royal Challengers at Jaipur
May 17 - Delhi Daredevils v Kings XI Punjab at Delhi
May 18 - Kolkata Knight Riders v Chennai Super Kings at Kolkata
May 18 - Deccan Chargers v Mumbai Indians at Hyderabad
May 19 - Bangalore Royal Challengers v Delhi Daredevils at Bangalore
May 20 - Kolkata Knight Riders v Rajasthan Royals at Kolkata
May 21 - Mumbai Indians v Kings XI Punjab at Mumbai
May 21 - Chennai Super Kings v Bangalore Royal Challengers at Chennai
May 22 - Delhi Daredevils v Kolkata Knight Riders at Delhi
May 23 - Kings XI Punjab v Deccan Chargers at Mohali
May 24 - Chennai Super Kings v Rajasthan Royals at Chennai
May 24 - Delhi Daredevils v Mumbai Indians at Delhi
May 25 - Deccan Chargers v Bangalore Royal Challengers at Hyderabad
May 25 - Kolkata Knight Riders v Kings XI Punjab at Kolkata
May 26 - Rajasthan Royals v Mumbai Indians at Jaipur
May 27 - Deccan Chargers v Chennai Super Kings at Hyderabad
May 28 - Bangalore Royal Challengers v Mumbai Indians at Bangalore
May 28 - Kings XI Punjab v Rajasthan Royals at Mohali
May 30 – 1st Semi-final at Mumbai
May 31 - 2nd Semi-final at Mumbai
June 1 - Final at Mumbai

Squads

Bangalore Royal Challengers
Rahul Dravid (C)
Abdur Razzak
Balachandra Akhil
KP Appanna
Jagadeesh Arunkumar
Praveen Kumar
Devraj Patil
Vinay Kumar
Mark Boucher (wk)
Nathan Bracken
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Bharat Chipli
Shreevats Goswami (wk)
Anil Kumble
Dale Steyn
Cameron White
Wasim Jaffer
Sunil Joshi
Jacques Kallis
Zaheer Khan
Virat Kohli
Misbah-ul-Haq
Ross Taylor

Mumbai Indians
Sachin Tendulkar (C)
Loots Bosman
Ankeet Chavan
Siddharth Chitnis
Gaurav Dhiman
Dilhara Fernando
Harbhajan Singh
Sanath Jayasuriya
Dominic Thornely
Musavir Khote
Dhawal Kulkarni
Lasith Malinga
Abhishek Nayar
Ashish Nehra
Manish Pandey
Rajesh Pawar
Shaun Pollock
Saurabh Tiwary
Ashwell Prince
Ajinkya Rahane
Rohan Raje
Luke Ronchi
Pinal Shah (wk)
Swapnil Singh
Y Vijay Takawale (wk)
Robin Uthappa
Vikrant Yeligati

Kolkata Knight Riders
Sourav Ganguly (C)
Aakash Chopra
Ajit Agarkar
Ashok Dinda
Brendon McCullum (wk)
Cheteshwar Pujara
Chris Gayle
David Hussey
Debabrata Das
Iqbal Abdulla
Ishant Sharma
Laxmi Shukla
Mohammad Hafeez
Murali Kartik
Rohan Banerjee
Ricky Ponting
Salman Butt
Saurasish Lahiri
Siddarth Kaul
Shoaib Akhtar
Tatenda Taibu (wk)
Umar Gul
Yashpal Singh
Wriddhiman Prasanta Saha

Delhi Daredevils
Virender Sehwag (C)
Rajat Bhatia
AB de Villiers
Shikhar Dhawan
Tillakaratne Dilshan
Pradeep Sangwan
Daniel Vettori
Gautam Gambhir
Brett Geeves
Dinesh Karthik
Glenn McGrath
Farveez Maharoof
Shoaib Malik
Tejashwi Yadav
Yo Mahesh
Mithun Manhas
Amit Mishra
Mohammad Asif
Yogesh Nagar
Manoj Tiwary
Mayank Tehlan

Chennai Super Kings
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C)
Viraj Vilas Kadbe
Palani Amarnath
Manpreet Gony
Srikkanth Anirudha
R Ashwin
Napoleon Einstein
Stephen Fleming
Subramaniam Badrinath
Lakshmipathy Balaji
Matthew Hayden
Michael Hussey
Shadab Jakati
Joginder Sharma
Arun Karthik
Suresh Kumar
Albie Morkel
Abhinav Mukund
Makhaya Ntini
Jacob Oram
Parthiv Patel (wk)
Suresh Raina
Muttiah Muralitharan
Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan

Kings XI Punjab
Yuvraj Singh (C)
Ajitesh Argal
Piyush Chawla
Pankaj Dharmani
Rishi Dhawan
Irfan Pathan
Nitin Saini
VRV Singh
Tanmay Srivastava
Karan Goel
James Hopes
Mahela Jayawardene
Simon Katich
Uday Kaul
Luke Pomersbach
Kumar Sangakkara
Sunny Sohal
Sahil Kukreja
Brett Lee
Shaun Marsh
Kyle Mills
Wilkin Mota
Ramesh Powar
Ramnaresh Sarwan
S Sreesanth

Rajasthan Royals
Shane Warne (C)
Aditya Angle
Swapnil Asnodkar
Ravindra Jadeja
Mohammad Kaif
Kamran Akmal (wk)
Sumit Khatri
Taruwar Kohli
Mahesh Rawat
Dimitri Mascarenhas
Parag More
Morne Morkel
Pankaj Singh
Munaf Patel
Niraj Patel
Yusuf Pathan
Anup Revandkar
Jaydev Shah
Graeme Smith
Sohail Tanvir
Siddharth Trivedi
Shane Watson
Younis Khan
Justin Langer
Dinesh Salunke

Deccan Chargers
VVS Laxman (C)
Sanjay Bangar
Halhadar Das (wk)
Herschelle Gibbs
Scott Styris
D Kalyankrishna
Adam Gilchrist (wk)
Pragyan Ojha
Dwaraka Ravi Teja
PM Sarvesh Kumar
Shahid Afridi
Rohit Sharma
RP Singh
Chamara Silva
Andrew Symonds
Chaminda Vaas
Venugopal Rao
Paidikalva Vijaykumar
Arjun Yadav
Nuwan Zoysa


Who's your money on?

I hope Mumbai Indians but their team is weak compared to other teams.

I fancy Bangalore Royal Challengers

Kolkata Knight Riders for me, don't know why though.

All I can say is Punjab (or Mohali) for the win. I hope that either James Hopes, Luke Pomersbach or Shaun Marsh (I think you missed that one AB) get a game

Added him and Noffke to the list.

My pick is Kolkata Knight Riders because they have a very strong team and its being led by my favourite player.

I'm rooting for Mumbai Indians.

It looks like it'll be very close and most of the teams look class. I've gone for Deccan Chargers as a punt - with Afridi, Gilchrist and Symonds in the same team someone has to fire!!

Cricinfo says that it wont be covering the IPL event. The news channels are protesting too. This cannot be good for IPL but they are blinded by money.

The news channels have dropped their threat.

Also you forgot about Luke Ronchi for the Mumbai Indians

Cricinfo does a review on all the IPL teams. Worth a read. I can't wait for it to start today (technically tomorrow, but thats just details) I'm definitely staying up late to watch the first match

I'm supporting Kings XI Punjab... they've got Brett Lee, Jayawardene, Sangakkara,
Pathan & Sarwan...  Clearly they've got some fire power in the team

They've also got Yuvraj. I'm really excited about today's game. Just 7 hours to go.

Is it being televised on Sky?

The team selection will be interesting because only four overseas players can play but that can be advantage because they can rotate players.

When does the match actually start? Sony says it starts on 6:30 but I dont want to watch their boring pre game show.