The IPL governing council made several announcements related to the third and the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League on Tuesday. Amongst others were the dates for the third season, and the four new venues that would be added to the existing eight, and the fact that the fourth edition would see two new teams joining the fray.
The third edition of the tournament will begin from March 12 and will go up to April 25; a 44 day tournament which will have 60 games. Last year, there were 59 games, and while the basic format of the tournament still remains the same, the tournament will also have an extra game in the firm of a third-fourth place play-off this time around. The four new venues announced are Dharamsala, Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam and Ahmedabad, which also play host to Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers and Rajasthan Royals respectively.
Apart from that, the former ICL players who had managed to leave the rebel league and come back into the main fold would be allowed to play in the IPL; either as domestic players or through the auction meant for the international ones.
The first match of the tournament will see Deccan Chargers play the Kolkata Knight iders in Hyderabad, where as the semi-finals will be played at Bangalore. The venue for the finals will be announced soon. Again, like the previous season, the ICC World T20 will begin almost immediately after the IPL ends; within five days of the finals.
The strategic time-out will now be reduced to five minutes per innings, divided into two of 2.5 minutes each. The bowling team would be able to take their time-out from the 6th to the 10th over, while the batting team would be able to do so between 11th and the 16th.
