 The dates for the third edition of the Indian Premier League have been
announced by the IPL working committee along with four new venues which will host
a few of the games. The tournament will be a 60-match series which will begin
from the 12th of March and will be continue till the 25th of April in 2010. Also,
the four new venues will be Dharamsala, Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam and Ahmedabad,
that will share some of the matches for Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians,
Deccan Chargers and Rajasthan Royals respectively.
There was also good news for the ex Indian Cricket League players who
had given up on the rebel league, as they were allowed a chance back in the
IPL. The domestic cricketers amongst those who played in the ICL would be paid
only between $18,000 and $45,000, whereas the international ones will be put
in the list of the players to be auctioned.
The defending champions, Deccan Chargers, will play the first game of
the tournament against Kolkata Knight Riders at Hyderabad, while the
two semi-finals will be played at Bangalore. The finals, which will be played
on the 25th April, does not have a venue yet. Within five days of the tournament
getting over, the ICC World T20 will begin in the West Indies. There
will also be a third-fourth place play-off for the tournament.
The IPL has also agreed to use the services of the Anti Corruption and Security
Unit (ACSU) of the ICC and will also incorporate that for the Champions
League.
The IPL working committee also decided on the strategic time-out to be reduced
from 7.5 minutes per innings to four time-outs of 2.5 minutes each. That effectively
reduces the total time from 15 minutes to ten for the time-outs. Each innings
will have two time-outs, with the bowling team being able to take their time-out
between the 6th and the 10th over, whereas the batting team taking it between
11th to the 15th over.
There was also an announcement made for the fourth season of the IPL to be
played in 2011. The number of teams for the fourth season will be increased
by two to ten, and the auction for the same will happen in January 2010 itself
to allow the new teams to gel together. This also means that the ten teams will
play each other twice, making it 90 league games to be followed by two semi-finals,
a game for the third place and then the finals; a whopping total of 94 games!
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