The Indian Premier League are set to clamp down heavily on time wasting during matches in this year’s tournament by penalising guilty teams with a fine of up to US dollars 360,000 and handing their captain a one-game ban.

Speaking at a pre-tournament press conference, IPL chairman Lalit Modi revealed every match in the 2008 event ran into overtime due to various time-wasting strategies.

In a bid to end this trend, organisers also announced the introduction of a strategy break - a seven-and-a-half minute pause in play after 10 overs of each innings that will allow both teams to reflect on their status in the game and plan ahead for the next 10 overs.

”Last year we found 59 out of 59 games going over time by as much as 45 to 50 minutes to an hour. So each game was being dragged further and further,” said Modi.

”The reasons that we contemplated were that players were going back and forth with messages and there was a lot of strategies going back and forth as far as the tournament was concerned.

”So we decided to tighten the rule as far as overs are concerned, time of overs is concerned and time of play is concerned.”

Explaining the stringent time guidelines, Modi continued: “So there is now a penalty that will start.

”The first penalty for the captain is USD20,000 for a first offence. For the second offence, the entire team gets penalised USD20,000 - that’s USD220,000.

”For the third offence, the captain gets banned for a game and the team gets penalised USD360,000.

”The whole idea is to bring in a new innovation of strategy breaks into the game.”