Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen will be in action on the opening day of the Indian Premier League in Cape Town.

Flintoff will play for the Chennai Super Kings against Mumbai Indians on April 18 with Pietersen's Royal Challengers Bangalore then taking on reigning champions Rajasthan Royals.

That will see Pietersen come up against his former Hampshire skipper Shane Warne, who captained Rajasthan to the inaugural IPL title last year.

Pietersen's current Rose Bowl colleague, Hampshire skipper Dimi Mascarenhas, is also part of Warne's IPL squad.

The tournament has been moved from India to South Africa due to security concerns partly caused by a clash with the country's general elections.

It had been expected that six venues would be used, with no team having a ''home'' ground, but that has now increased to eight.

''We have eight cities that we are going to go out to,'' IPL commissioner Lalit Modi told Supersport.

''We have Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, East London, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and Kimberly as the venues we are going to go forward with.

''It's going to be a non-stop carnival from day one to the end. We start the carnival on April 18 and the carnival is going to finish on May 24.''