Dav Whatmore (top) and Woorkeri Raman, on whom resides the responsibility of the development of Bengal cricket, arrived in the city, on Sunday. While Raman has been appointed the Bengal coach, Whatmore is the director (development) of junior cricket. Telegraph pictures

Mumbai: After weeks of deliberations involving some curious mathematics, the Indian Premier League (IPL), on Sunday, finally decided on format and the player retention regulations for the next three seasons.

Accordingly, the Twenty20 tournament would have 74 matches, including three play-offs and the final, with each team getting to play seven home games and as many away matches.

The ten teams would be split into two groups of five each. After playing home and away against each other within the group, the teams would play the five contenders from the other group.

However, they would play home and away against one of the fives team from the other group while it would be either home or away against the remaining four teams. All this would be decided by draw of lots.

The revised format, approved by the IPL governing council, which met here on Sunday, ensures that the current criteria of every franchise playing seven home and away games each is not compromised.

However, a radical change has been introduced in the knock-out stage. Instead of the conventional semi-finals and final, the top four from the second league stage would clash to decide the finalists.

The Council, which met for more than two hours, also decided that the eight inaugural franchises would be allowed to retain any four players from their 2010 squad, not more than three of them being Indians.

“The (fresh) player auction would be held in the second week of November,” Chirayu Amin, the interim IPL chairman, said after the meeting.

In an effort to make it a level playing field for the two new teams entering the fray, Kochi and Pune, the teams which choose to retain the players would lose up to half their spending cap, which has been fixed at $9 million.

Again, some number crunching has been done and accordingly a franchise would lose $1.8 million for the first player retained, $1.3 million for the second, $0.9 million for the third and $0.5 million for the fourth player, respectively.

On the other hand, the two new franchises, Kochi and Pune, would be free to sign up to four from the list of players registered with the IPL but who were not signed up by any team in the previous three editions.

Again, the franchises would lose their spending capacity at the auction as per the formula mentioned above.

The franchises have also been imposed a limit of 30 players who can be registered in their squad but the limit of overseas signings has been increased from eight to 10. However, the teams could field only four foreigners in a match, as is the present case.

The schedule for the 2011 season is yet to be finalised, but sources in the IPL said, “the start could be five-six days after the World Cup ends (on April 2). It (the opening match) is tentatively on April 8-10.”

Revised structure for knock-out stage

Play-off game A: 1st vs 2nd; Play-off game B: 3rd vs 4th; Play-off game C: Winner of B vs Loser of A; FINAL (game D): Winner of A vs Winner of C

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WHAT THE GOVERNING COUNCIL DECIDED

2011 SCHEDULE
Yet to be finalised but the tournament will tentatively start within a week after the ICC World Cup gets over on April 2.

FORMAT
Next three editions (2011-13) would have 74 matches. The format is borrowed from Aussie Rules Football. The 10 teams would be split in to two groups of five each and would play in a double round-robin format before the top four qualify for the play-offs.

PLAY-OFFS
Instead of knock-out semi-finals, the top four will play in three play-offs to decide the finalists.

PLAYER RETENTION
The eight franchises that competed in the previous three editions have each been allowed to retain four players, including not more than three Indian players, ahead of the player auction.

SALARY CAP
The teams will have a spending limit of $9 million at the auction but this will further come down for teams retaining players, up to $4.5 million depending on the number of players they retain.

PLAYER REGULATIONS
Teams can register a maximum of 30 players and can sign 10 foreigners, up from the previous limit of eight. However, only four overseas can be fielded in a match, as was the case earlier.