74 matches instead of 94 for IPL 2011

The people behind the IPL have finally figured out that 94 matches in one season is another way of saying overkill. It took them some time, but they have finally come to their senses. The new number is 74. The following section would address all faqs on the subject.

How was there going to be 94 games?
There are 10 teams (remember pune and kochi). So if each team plays the other 9 teams twice, it comes out to be 90 games in all. Add to that the 2 semis, the final and the CLT20 qualifier third place game, and you get a 94 match tournament.

How 74 now? Who will my team not play?
Now, the 10 teams have to be divided into two groups of 5 each. Then the top two from each group progress to the semis. Thanks to Shridhar Jaju for correcting me. Here, in his own words, is how it will unfold:

5 teams in each group will play 2 matches (home and away) against the other teams from their group. That makes it 20 matches in Group A and 20 matches in Group B.

After that, the top 3 teams from each group (6 teams in all) play home and away matches against each other. That will make it 30 matches in this stage.

And then we will have the 2 semi-finals, the 3rd place play-off and the finals. That makes it 74 in all.

Thanks again, Shridhar.

Wow, it seems even Shridhar’s format has been found to be false. Our good friend Aditya lets us know that we have been wrong all along. Thank you Aditya.

So to lay to rest all speculations, here is what the format really is, according to the ever so trustworthy cricinfo:

League phase
Every team will play the same number of league games (14, seven home and seven away) as in previous seasons with the following break-up: each team will play the other four in its group both home and away (eight matches), four of the teams in the other group once (four matches, either home or away) and the remaining team in the other group twice, both home and away. A random draw will decide the composition of the groups as well as who plays whom across the groups once and twice.

Playoffs
The teams that finish first and second in the league table will contest the first playoff, which is effectively a semi-final (Game A). The teams that finish third and fourth will play each other in a knockout that is effectively a quarter-final (Game B). The loser of Game A will play the winner of Game B in a match (Game C) that will decide the second finalist that will play the winner of Game A in the grand final. This playoff format was previously used in New Zealand’s domestic one-day tournament last season.

I have understood how it works and would be coming up with an info graphic soon.

Here are a few FAQ’s

When is the IPL gonna start?
It commences on April 2. A good thing that it is after the world cup.

Any other announcement?
Yes. The spending cap on players has been increased to 9 million USD. It was earlier fixed at 7 million.

Also, the existing 8 teams are allowed to retain 4 players (max 2 foreign and max 3 Indians).

Tagged as: IPL, ipl 2011, ipl update, kochi, pune