Setanta Sports has further broadened its coverage of sport by announcing it has secured the exclusive rights to the Indian Premier League, the new Twenty20 cricket competition, in a five-year deal.

Its exclusively live coverage will start with all 59 games of the inaugural Indian Premier League season that takes place across India from April 18 to June 1, 2008.

The eight teams involved in the tournament - Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mohali and Mumbai - have attracted some of the biggest names in world cricket to play in the competition.

Indian cricketing stars such as Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly will all feature alongside cricketing legends such as Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Muttiah Muralitharan, Jacques Kallis and Adam Gilchrist.

The Indian Premier League’s first season will start on Friday, April 18 with Bangalore v Kolkata and concludes with the final in Mumbai on Sunday, June 1. Each team will play each other twice, with the top four teams competing in semi-finals on May 30 and May 31.

The vast majority of the fixtures will be day-night matches and Setanta will show each and every game exclusively live. As the games will start at 9.30am, 1.30pm or 2.30pm GMT, Setanta will ensure the games are repeated in peak time to maximise the audience able to view this exciting tournament.

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