England stars set for IPL opener

Pietersen and Flintoff are among seven English players set for the IPL

Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff will be in action on the opening day of the Indian Premier League when its second season begins in South Africa.

Pietersen will lead Royal Challengers Bangalore against Rajasthan Royals in Cape Town on 18 April.

It will be preceded by a game pitting Flintoff's Chennai Super Kings franchise against Mumbai Indians.

Organisers were forced to switch the tournament to South Africa because of security concerns.

But the eight teams will play a full 59-match schedule, climaxed by the final in Johannesburg on 24 May.

The decision to move to South Africa was announced on Tuesday and IPL officials, working in tandem with Cricket South Africa, have taken only four days to produce the new schedule.

As well as Cape Town and Johannesburg, matches will take place in Port Elizabeth, Durban, Centurion, East London, Kimberley and Bloemfontein.

Pietersen and Flintoff, the two most expensive signings made at last month's IPL auction in Goa, along with England team-mates Paul Collingwood, Owais Shah (both playing for Delhi Daredevils) and Ravi Bopara (Kings XI Punjab), can only take part in the competition until 30 April because of international commitments.

606: DEBATE Can anyone explain why Pietersen and Flintoff are the best paid IPL players? They would struggle to get in my top ten twelfers

It means they will be able to play a maximum of six matches each.

But there is time for Pietersen and Flintoff to face each other, with Bangalore taking on Chennai in Port Elizabeth on 20 April.

The time limit does not apply to Hampshire's Dimitri Mascarenhas (Rajasthan) or Graham Napier of Essex (Mumbai), who will not be involved in England's home Test series against West Indies, which begins at Lord's on 6 May.

IPL commissioner Lalit Modi has said the competition will be "a non-stop carnival from day one to the end".

Matches will be played at either 1230 and 1630 local time (1600 and 2000 Indian time) in the hope of attracting huge TV audiences back in India.

The IPL was launched last year after the eight team franchises were sold for £368m and TV rights packages for £500m.

The inaugural title was won by Rajasthan, who are captained and coached by former Australia spin bowler Shane Warne.

But the competition had to be taken for its second season because of a clash with national elections, which meant the Indian government could not provide the necessary security guarantees.

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