IPL Season 3 - - Schedule Announced With Opening Match on March 12 While Final on March 25

Indian T20 cricket fans would surely be waiting for Friday 12-Mar-2010. D.Y. Patil Stadium of Navi Mumbai is all set to host the inaugural match of IPL 3rd Season. The fans would see IPL 2nd seasons defending champions Deccan Chargers playing against 2nd seasons worst performing team Kolkata Knight Riders.

IPL 2010 season has been in limelight since it opened its bidding window – as none of the IPL teams opted for available Pakistani players.

The 2nd season of IPL had to be shifted to South Africa due to general elections in India. There were quite a few players who raised security concerns this year but the IPL governing council and BCCI were quick to rule out any such option.

IPL 2010 would see the same 8 IPL teams 1) Deccan Chargers 2) Delhi Daredevils 3) Kings XI Punjab 4) Chennai super kings 5) Kolkata Knight Riders 6) Royal Challengers 7) Rajasthan Royals and 8) Mumbai Indians.

Each team would play 14 league matches – which means that each team will play against each other twice. There are two matches scheduled everyday from 12-Mar to 21-Apr 2010 in 4 PM and 8 PM slots respectively.

The top four teams emerging out of the league phase would then move on to the semifinal stage of the championship. Chinnaswamy stadium, Bengaluru would host both the semifinals on 21-Apr-10 and 22-Apr -2010 respectively The format of the game is such that it is not possible to predict the top four teams at this stage.

D Y Patil Stadium would host the final match of the championship on Sunday 25-Apr-2010. IPL governing council has ensured that almost all the matches are scheduled in the evening slot, so that maximum number of fans can see their heroes playing.

There have been four new venues added to the event this year, namely Ahmedabad, Cuttack, Dharamsala and Nagpur. Also BCCI has invited bids for 2 more franchises. As a result the next season of IPL would have atleast 10 teams competing. The move of adding the new venues is seen as a strategy to estimate the pulse of IPL20 in these cities.