'First IPL cricket match in Bangalore'

The first match of the much-awaited Indian Premier League (IPL) will be held in Banglaore in April, while the semi-finals and the final will be in Mumbai, a top IPL official announced in Mumbai on Friday.

"The final will be played June 1 and the semi finals May 30 and 31. These matches will be in Mumbai," IPL commissioner and chairman Lalit Modi told reporters after a meeting with the eight franchise owners and representatives of the match staging associations.

Modi said the IPL board has the option of staging these important matches either at the Brabourne Stadium of the Cricket Club of India (CCI) or the DY Patil stadium in Navi Mumbai. "I guess they will choose CCI," he said.

The opening match of the Indian cricket board-promoted tournament, based on Twenty20 matches, will be played between business tycoon Vijay Mallya's Bangalore and Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan's Kolkata side at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium April 18.

This was decided by the IPL governing council at a meeting in which the marketing strategy and guidelines were also thrashed out.

Modi said the International Cricket Council (ICC) umpires would officiate the matches.

"Seven or eight ICC Elite Panel umpires and 16 Indian umpires would officiate. The match referees are being appointed and we already have the anti-corruption and anti-doping measures in place," he said.

On Cricket Australia's (CA) demand that its sponsors should not clash with those of the IPL, Modi said that no national team sponsors would get protection in the IPL.

"No team sponsors will get protection from IPL," he said.

IPL will offer $3 million prize money while the Champion's Twenty20, to be contested by two teams from India Australia, England, South Africa and Pakistan, will offer $5 million.

IPL will feature eight franchises in the first season, with each team playing seven home and away games against each another. IPL hopes to grow the eight franchises to 16 by 2010.

The IPL governing council comprises seven members. Besides Modi, the other members are: former Indian cricket board president IS Bindra, board vice-president Chirayu Amin and Delhi District and District Cricket Association president Arun Jaitley besides former Indian captains Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shashtri.