South Africans Jacques Kallis, Makhaya Ntini and Mark Boucher, along with West Indies duo Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle are the latest international stars to join the Indian Premier League.

Almost 50 international cricketers have already signed up for the IPL, which is scheduled to start in April 2008. The competition will consist of eight teams and will last 44 days.

The league was launched by the Board of Control for Cricket in India to counter the “rebel” Indian Cricket League, which is due to start on November 30.

Other international stars who have signed up include Australians Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Brett Lee and Adam Gilchrist, Indians Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid as well as Pakistanis Inzamam-ul-Haq, Shoaib Akhtar and Shahid Afridi.