IPL 5.0 kicks off on 4 April 2012

MUMBAI: The fifth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will commence in Chennai on 4 April 2012.

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

The 2012 Player Auction for the players who used to play for the Kochi Tuskers Kerala franchise will be held in late January / early February. Each franchise will have an auction purse of $2 million 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 four 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 four players who were bought in the 2011 Auction, and they must stay within the squad composition regulations at all times.