74 matches to pep up IPL show

The Indian Premier League governing council on Sunday unveiled a heavily-modified schedule for the 2011 season, diluting the existing home-and-away format for the games to make up for the addition of two new teams to the competition.

The 10 IPL franchises will be divided into two groups of five for the next three years with a total of 74 matches per season compared to 60 played this year.

In the new format, each team will play the other four in their group home and away, which means the league stage will consist of 40 matches. The three top teams from each group will then progress into another round of home and away matches, which will comprise 30 games, followed by the semi-finals, a third-place playoff and a final.

The 2011 season is tentatively scheduled to begin on April 2, five days after the World Cup ends.

Despite the change in scheduling, teams will get to play 14 home and away games — as they’ve been doing for the past three years — although in a slightly convoluted format. However, had the current format adopted as it is, the IPL-4 would have stretched to 94 matches.