Friday, 18 April 2008, will mark the beginning of 44 uninterrupted days of 59 Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 cricket matches on SuperSport, played by world-class cricketers. The IPL Twenty20 competition, backed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, will be a landmark event as teams will not be grouped by nationality, but by celebrity owners or corporate houses which have bought players on an auction to form eight teams with a pool of 16 players each. SuperSport has acquired the rights for this tournament for five years.