Mumbai, Mar 8 Sachin Tendulkar was today named captain of the city franchise team christened 'Mumbai Indians' to take part in the Indian Premier League and proclaimed that the Cricket Board-promoted event will be a "super hit" tournament.

The Twenty20 IPL is be held from April 18 to June 1.

"Twenty20 cricket is hugely popular everywhere and I have no doubt the IPl will be a super hit," he declared after launching the logo of Mumbai Indians, owned by Reliance Industries.

"I as well as all the players are excited about the IPL. We are all looking forward to it. Twenty20 format has been hugely popular everywhere as it can be used as a family outing", he said at the launch function.

"When the IPL auction was held, we were all in Australia and had to focus on the one-dayers. I want to request all the Mumbaikars to come and support our team," he said.

The champion batsman said he was not concerned how much money was spent on each player during the auction but was curious about which player was bought by which of the eight city-based franchises on February 20.

Tendulkar, who skipped India's victorious Twenty20 World Cup campaign last year in South Africa, explained that he opted out of the event along with Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly - all icon players of IPL now - as at that point of time he needed rest.

"We had a long tour of England followed by the seven ODIs and at that point of time I was not in a physical condition to give 100 per cent to the team," he said. (Agencies)