South Africa to Host IPL Season 2
March 25th, 2009 by Neet |
With just days left for season 2 of the Indian Premier league (IPL) to get underway, South Africa has been confirmed as the venue for the IPL season 2.
The decision to hold the lucrative Twenty20 tournament was taken after a meeting between IPL commissioner Lalit Modi and Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola at an undisclosed venue.
Although no official announcement has been made yet, sources said that the tournament will be held between April 17 and May 24, a delay of about one week from the original schedule.
Eight venues have been identified for staging the eight-team tournament and the matches will start at 4 pm IST and 8 pm IST to make it convenient for Indian television viewers.
Modi and Majola are scheduled to hold a press conference at 8.30 pm IST where the details of the tournament are expected to be announced.
Reacting to the decision, former chief of CSA, Ali Backer said, “We are delighted that IPL 2 is happening in South Africa. With the IPL moving to South Africa, it is a huge opportunity for the country. Local crowd will cheer for teams of IPL 2.”
Amrit Mathur, CEO of Delhi Daredevils, said, “We are happy that South Africa is hosting the tournament. Level of crowd support won’t be the same outside India, but sponsors are also happy. No issue with the venue of the tournament.”
However, the Rajasthan Royals are still hopeful that the event will happen in India. South Africa pipped England as the venue after the BCCI decided to shift the tournament outside India because of security issues in view of the general elections.
According to the sources, South Africa proposed to quicken the visa process and reduce expenditure of the event. On Monday (March 23) the South African Government spent most of the time lobbying IPL.
Offered discounts on hotels and reduce cost for the staging had made South Africa logistically a more viable option. South African Ministry of Tourism and Players Association backed the bid to host the IPL.
Weather is the major concern for the IPL bosses after which South Africa has emerged as the frontrunner.
Everybody from the SA players’ association to the National Tourism Board has also thrown their weight behind the tournament being staged in South Africa.
Earlier, talking about England as a possible venue Modi had said that its a huge cricket competition and would bring high revenue for the hosts. Close to a USD 100 million dollars would be churned out of the competition and that would boost the economy at the time of recession. And British economy would surely want to benefit out of this.
“The IPL is a big competition. We would bring $100 million of revenue to the British economy. Anybody in a recession would want to have us,” Modi had said.
He also admitted that there are 70 % chances of the game being disrupted by rain and would clash with the London marathon, which could lead to unavailibility of hotel rooms. April and May are rain heavy months for England, which could prove as a deterrant for the tournament to move to UK.
Modi had said, “There are 70 per cent chances of the games being disrupted by rain. The IPL will also be clashing with the London Marathon and a number of Test matches, which will be blocking hotel rooms.”

England take on New Zealand, who they have already beaten in the tournament (match starts 2300 GMT, Saturday).
India’s position has been consolidated by fine performance of their batsmen who helped the team to reach 278-4, just one run behind New Zealand’s fist innings total of 279 runs here on the second day of the first Test.
The Indian Premier League is a Twenty20 cricket competition created by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and chaired by the Chairman & Commissioner IPL, BCCI Vice President Lalit Modi. The first season of the Indian Premier League commenced on 18 April 2008 and ended on 1 June 2008 with the victory of the Rajasthan Royals in the final at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai. The second season begins on 19 April 2009. All these Indian Premier League franchises are based on a city each including, Mumbai, Mohali, Delhi, Rajasthan, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai.Listed below are the details of the 8 IPL Cricket 2009 Team Franchise Owners :