Time-outs to be reduced?

The IPL play-offs will see time-outs reduced to two-and-a-half minutes but there will now be two per innings.

‘It’s not frozen yet but we are looking at two aspects,’ Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner said. ‘There will be two two-and-a-half-minutes break per innings, so the break in all during an innings will be of five minutes.

‘The first two-and-a-half-minute break will be just after the Powerplay [6 overs] and the second to be taken by the fielding side at any time.

‘It happens in every sport, there is a strategy break and everything. But 7.5 minutes may look like a bit longer, so we are seeing how we can reduce it down to five minutes.’

The idea is yet to be ratified by the tournament’s technical committee.