LONDON, March 29: Lord’s and The Oval, England’s leading international cricket venues, are considering offers to host exhibition matches featuring teams from the Indian Premier League.

According to a news report carried by The Times, although the venues for the preliminary IPL games have already been allocated in India, there seems an increasing likelihood that other international grounds will be also be utilised, as a way to promote the event globally.

As it stands, however, the London venues will only stage exhibition matches.

Paul Sheldon, the Surrey Chief Executive, declined to comment to The Times, while a spokesman for the MCC also refused to make a statement.

Meanwhile, the Domestic Structure Review Group, chaired by Glamorgan chairman Paul Russell, will go before the ECB on April 9 and is due to suggest a radical response to the IPL.

The committee suggests two new Twenty20 contests, the first of which will start in early summer along similar lines to the old Benson & Hedges Cup which ran for 30 years from 1972. It will include Minor Counties, the universities and Ireland and Scotland.

The second tournament, according to the Daily Telegraph, will be called the English Premier League, taking place at the height of summer and comprising 21 teams in three groups of seven — with county sides complemented by international players from India, Australia and South Africa.—Agencies