The Indian Premier League on Tuesday started the global tendering process for official franchises in the eight city leagues by unveiling its prospectus.

The franchisee prospectus outlines the details and structure of the each team, underlining that each franchisee squad would consist of 16 players, four international, four Under-21 players and four players from the franchise's catchment area.

Each franchise would also require the services of an executive team, team manager, professional coaching team, physiotherapist and an event manager, a press release said.

The league is expected to start on April 18, 2008 and will feature eight franchised city teams, who will compete for the grand prize of US $ 3 million.

The inaugural season will run for 44 days and franchises will play each other on a home and away basis with at least seven guaranteed home matches and a total of 59 games.

The top four teams will contest the semi-finals and the grand final will take place over the same weekend.

In keeping with the tradition of the Twenty 20, all of the IPL matches will be played under lights at BCCI designated stadia across the country between 7pm to 10pm IST.

"IPL is a concept that will take the game's popularity to an altogether different level. It is the future of the modern game and the perfect tool to take the game global and across boundaries. The fact that the game's top players will be involved means it's just the perfect platform for this format of the game to take off. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that the IPL will be one of the biggest success stories this game has seen in times to come," former India captain Ravi Shastri, who is also the IPL Governing Council member said.

The IPL governing council comprises of Lalit Modi, vice-president, BCCI as the League Chairman and Commissioner. I S Bindra (former BCCI president), Chirayu Amin (BCCI vice-president), Rajeev Shukla (BCCI vice-president), Arun Jaitley (president - Delhi District Cricket Association), former India captains Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar [Images] and Shastri will also be a part of the governing council.

All office bearers of the BCCI will be the ex-officio members of the IPL. The governing council, which has been initially appointed for a term of five years will run and operate the Indian Premier League as a virtual company. The council will hire and bring in a team of professional cricket administrators to look after the day-to-day operations of the Indian Premier League.

Player list:

India: Ajit Agarkar [Images], Subramaniam Badrinath, Piyush Chawla, M S Dhoni [Images], Rahul Dravid [Images], Gautam Gambhir [Images], Sourav Ganguly [Images], Wasim Jaffer [Images], Mohammad Kaif, Dinesh Karthik [Images], Murali Kartik [Images], Zaheer Khan [Images], Anil Kumble [Images], V V S Laxman [Images], Munaf Patel [Images], Parthiv Patel, Irfan Pathan [Images], Yusuf Pathan, Ramesh Powar [Images], Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag [Images], Joginder Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh [Images], R P Singh, Yuvraj Singh [Images], Sreesanth [Images], Sachin Tendulkar [Images], Robin Uthappa

Australia: Shane Warne [Images], Glen McGrath [Images], Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting [Images], Adam Gilchrist [Images], Andrew Symonds [Images], Michael Clarke [Images], Mike Hussey, Brett Lee [Images], Matthew Hayden [Images], Nathan Bracken [Images], Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Jason Gillespie, Cameron White

Pakistan: Shoaib Malik [Images], Mohammed Yousuf, Shoaib Akthar, Younis Khan, Mohammed Asif, Shahid Afridi [Images]

Sri Lanka [Images]: Mahela Jayawardene [Images], Muttiah Muralitharan, Chaminda Vaas [Images], Lasith Malinga [Images], Nuwan Zoysa, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakara, Farveez Maharoof, Dilhara Fernando

South Africa: Graeme Smith [Images], Ashwell Prince, Herschelle Gibbs [Images], Albie Morkel, AB de Villiers, Shaun Pollock [Images], Loots Bosman, Jacques Kallis [Images], Makhaya Ntini [Images]

New Zealand [Images]: Stephen Fleming [Images], Brendan McCullum, Jacob Oram [Images], Daniel Vettori [Images], Scott Styris

West Indies [Images]: Shivnarine Chanderpaul [Images], Ramnaresh Sarwan [Images], Chris Gayle