The 2011 Indian Premier League players’ auction will be in Mumbai on January 8-9, IPL’s governing council said Wednesday. The tournament from April 8 to May 22 will feature 60 matches between eight teams. It begins a week after the World Cup ends. Each of the eight will play 14 games, adding up to 56 league matches, the same as in previous IPLs.
The top two from league rounds will then enter a playoff, with the winner qualifying for the final.
The third and fourth teams in the league will be in the other playoff: the winner will play the loser from the first playoff.
The auction is likely to be on the scale of the first one in 2008, with teams starting from scratch.
The auction was earlier due this month, but uncertainty over the tournament’s composition — with two franchises expelled and a third, Kochi, in limbo — forced a postponement.