A whopping 94 matches for 2011 IPL!

The 2011 edition of the Indian Premier League will include a mammoth 94 games, with two extra teams set to be added to the league.

Announcing plans for the next two years of the tournament, commissioner Lalit Modi confirmed that the third season will be held from March 12 to April 25 next year and will include four new venues.

Nagpur, Visakhapatnam, Ahmedabad and Dharamsala are the new stadiums, hosting some games of the Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers, Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab, respectively.

However it was the scale of the 2011 season that grabbed the most attention, with confirmation that an extra 34 games will be added to the already packed schedule.

"There will be 94 games in all with each franchise playing 18 preliminary matches, instead of 14 games as in the past," IPL commissioner Lalit Modi told reporters.

"But the window of 45 days would remain more or less the same."

The 2010 edition will end just five days before the World Twenty20 opens in the Caribbean on April 30, and the first two days of the IPL will clash with the final stages of field hockey's World Cup, to be held in New Delhi from February 28-March 13.

The International Hockey Federation had originally scheduled the World Cup from March 7-20, but brought the tournament forward to ensure it was not overshadowed by the IPL.

The 'strategic timeout' will also be reduced from seven and a half minutes to five in 2010.

With player contracts set to expire after the third event, a player auction for the fourth season, with a new salary cap, will be held in the summer of 2010 to allow squads to integrate.

The 'icon player' concept will be done away with but there will be no change in the number of international players - ten in the squad and four on the field.

The 2009 event was held in South Africa in April-May after the Indian government declined to provide security because the tournament overlapped with general elections in the country.