IPL 2010 tentative schedule announced

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 -- The dates for the third edition of the Indian Premier League have been announced by the IPL working committee today. The tournament will begin early next year from March 12 and will go all the way up to the 25th of April, making it a 44-day long tournament.

The number of teams still remains at eight, and each time will continue playing each other twice, despite suggestions that the format was looking too long. This means that there will be 56 games in the league stage, followed by two semi-finals, a match for the third-place and a final.

Four new venues have also been added to the already existing eight. They are Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam, Dharmasala and Ahmedabad. They will play hosts to some of the games for Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers, Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals respectively. The semi-finals will be held in Bangalore.

The ex-ICL players had also good news waiting for them, as they will be allowed to participate in the next edition of the IPL subject to approval from the BCCI. They would put in one of the two categories; either Indian domestic players or former international players to be available through the auctions.

The strategic time-out, which was a bone of contention for many has been reduced as well to two of 2.5 minutes each within a single innings. The bowling team can opt for it between the sixth and the tenth over, whereas the batting team can do so between 11th and the 16th over.

Lalit Modi also announced that the fourth edition in 2011 will have ten teams in the competition.