IPL 4 to begin six days after ICC World Cup 2011

The IPL player auction for the 2011 season will be held on January 8 and 9 in Mumbai, the league's governing council has announced. The tournament itself will feature eight teams, playing 60 matches, and run from April 8 to May 22.

The tournament, which begins a week after the World Cup ends, will involve each of the eight sides playing playing 14 games, adding up to 56 matches, the same as in previous IPL editions. The top two from the league rounds will then contest a play-off match, with the winner qualifying for the "Grand Final." The teams that finish third and fourth in the league stage will contest the other play-off, and the winner of that game will play the defeated team from the first play-off to decide the second finalist.

The auction is likely to be on the scale of the first one, held in 2008, with teams starting largely from scratch, and will be held under rules framed in September.