MEDIA RELEASE The IPL Governing Council met at Chennai earlier today, and took 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. Rajeev Shukla Chairman IPL