Cricket: Watch IPL live online

Watch IPL 2009 online

The Indian Premier League kicks off today in what could be a revolution for the staid image of cricket.

The inaugural premier league will be shown live on Setanta broadband and cable television, with live commentary from India on Setanta.com.

The Indian Premier League will last for six weeks and has attracted some of the top players from around the world, although many of England’s top players have rejected offers to play in the Twenty20 league for fear of losing the chance to represent England.

IPLt20.com, the official website for the new Premier League, contains information on the eight teams that make up the Indian Premier League as well as biographies of all the players, along with video and audio content.

This is the first systematic attempt to give cricket a global audience; the television rights have seen sold round the world from the US to the Middle East and Setanta will be showing every game live in the UK.

American cheerleaders have even been flown in to get the crowd going for this evening's opening game in Bangalore.

Although the Twenty20 version of the game has attracted criticism it has also attracted some of the sport’s top players. Each of the eight teams is allowed four overseas stars.

The game itself is shorter and will be played in the evening when the majority of people have time to watch them.

International stars contracted to line out include West Indian star Chris Gayle, Australian captain Ricky Ponting both turning out for the Kolkotta Knight Ridders.

On the home front both Mark Ramprakash and England one-day captain Paul Collingwood turned down offers to play in the IPL, although Collingwood said he hopes "an opportunity in the future may arise" to play in the IPL.

The inaugural match sees Bangalore Royal Challengers take on the Knight Ridders of Kolkotta.

You can keep up to date with all the scores as they happen with live updates sent to your phone via the BBC sports website.

http://setanta.com/en/UK/How-to-subscribe/Broadband/
www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/bbc_sport/cricket
http://iplt20.com