Double Round-Robin format in Cricket – Explained

And, in the double round-robin format, the number of games are doubled, as every team will face the other teams twice in the tournament. E.g., the most celebrated Indian Premier League (aka IPL) follows this format in their league phase, where the first four teams will be taken into the elimination rounds for deciding the winner.

This article will explain – how the double round-robin scheduling format is used in IPL and other domestic leagues scheduling.

Application of the double round-robin format

Most of the domestic T20 leagues, like the Indian Premier League, Bangladesh Premier League, Caribbean Premier League, and other leagues, follow double robin-format where every team in the tournament faces the other teams twice – once in the home venue and again in the away venue (home of the opponent).

This format is not possible in major International cricket tournaments due to the format’s extra length and also because of home/away venue scheduling. As a result, major ICC tournaments are mostly single-round-robin events. You can find here all the formats used in the ODI World Cups since its inaugural edition in 1975.

Advantages of the Double round-robin format

Adding to all the advantages in the round-robin format, the double round-robin format brings more balance to the schedules. Here, every two teams in the tournament will be faced twice against each other, once in each team’s home ground.

This way, more balance and opportunity will be provided to all the teams in the tournament by playing an equal number of home and away games.

Disadvantages of the double round-robin format

The double round-robin tournaments will be a much longer edition when compared to any other existing tournament schedule formats.

How to determine the number of games in a round-robin tournament?

The formula for calculating the number of games in a double round-robin format is,

n(n-1), assuming n is the number of teams in the tournament.

E.g., IPL usually has 8 teams, which means n=8, and therefore:

Number of league games in IPL = 8(8-1) = 8(7) = 56 matches.