The IPL Governing Council have taken a number of decisions with regard to the upcoming 2012 season.

LEAGUE FORMAT

The 2012 season will revert to the home and away format, with each of the nine franchises playing 16 matches. There will be four Play-off matches - a total of 76 matches.

The season will commence in Chennai on Wednesday, 4 April 2012.

The Play-off matches will be held in Bangalore and Chennai, with the final to be played in Chennai on Sunday, 27 May 2012.

PLAYERS The 2012 Player Auction will be held in India in late January / early February.

Each franchise will have an Auction Purse of $2m to spend on players in the 2012 auction.

For the 2012 & 2013 seasons, the maximum squad size will be increased to 33, and the cap on the number of overseas players in the squad increased to 11.

The regulation that only 4 overseas players may be in the playing XI is unchanged.

The trading window will open on 15 December 2011 and run through to 20 January 2012.

There will be a short second trading window after the Player Auction.

The trading regulations will be as per previous seasons. There will be no financial cap on trading. Franchises can only add to their squad, by way of trading, a maximum of 4 players who were bought in the 2011 Auction, and they must stay within the squad composition regulations at all times.

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