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South Africa Steps In To Host Ipl (indian Premier League)


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South Africa confirmed as IPL host country

New Delhi: South Africa will host the second edition of the multi-billion dollar Indian Premier League (IPL) from April 17 at six venues.

The IPL Twenty20 championship will be played at Durban, Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Pretoria, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth.

With South Africa saying yes to IPL, League Commissioner and Chairman Lalit Modi's search for a country to host the second edition of the Twenty20 championship is finally over.

Modi met Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola at an undisclosed venue to discuss the possibility of hosting the second edition of the Twenty20 event here. And after the meeting, sources told CNN-IBN that the deal was sealed to host the league in South Africa.

South Africa says there will be no trouble staging the League and has assured full security. Cricket South Africa, it is reported, has also offered full support to the IPL.

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Cape Town to host IPL opener

March 25, 2009 Edition 1

ZAAHIER ADAMS and Sapa-AP

Cape Town cricket fans are in for a special treat as Newlands is set to host the opening ceremony and first match of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 extravaganza.

After days of intense speculation, Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola and IPL commissioner Lalit Modi confirmed yesterday that the second edition of the IPL would be held in South Africa because of the country's favourable weather conditions.

The IPL organisers had also been considering England as an alternative host nation after ruling on Saturday that the multimillion-dollar tournament would be relocated because the dates clashed with India's general election.

The opening game of the six-week tournament at Newlands is scheduled for Saturday, April 18, with sources indicating that the defending champions, the Rajasthan Royals, will get the show under way.

"We are very happy to confirm that South Africa will host the 2009 DLF Indian Premier League tournament," Majola said in a CSA statement.

"The overwhelming reason we chose South Africa is primarily the weather," said IPL chairman Lalit Modi after meeting Majola. "The weather in the month of April in South Africa is more favourable than it would have been in the UK."

The tournament will now be played over five weeks from April 18 to May 24, instead of the originally scheduled six, but with the same number of matches - 59. The tournament had originally been scheduled for April 10-May 24.

Organisers said they needed an extra week of preparation to choose the venues and complete a schedule. Fans also needed time to prepare, with 30 000 hotel room nights and 10 000 airline tickets expected to be booked.

Earlier this month, the International Cricket Council said SA will host this year's Champions Trophy - a competition that was moved from Pakistan because of security concerns and then pulled from Sri Lanka after worries of rain.

"The decision to move the (IPL) tournament outside India was one of the hardest decisions the board has taken," said Modi, noting that "hundreds of millions of" Indian fans were disappointed.

In London, the England and Wales Cricket Board acknowledged that SA was a more "practical choice".

"We wish the IPL every success in South Africa," ECB chief executive David Collier said in a statement. "However, we all recognised the difficulties and logistical issues involved in areas such as security when the G20 is meeting in the UK next week and the climatic challenges."

Modi cited the time difference with India and broadcaster SuperSport's agreement to show 12 hours of cricket daily. He said games would begin daily at 4pm and 8pm in India, which is just three hours ahead of South Africa.

"The decision is also the right one for hundreds and millions of fans," said Modi. "Being in South Africa will enable our fans to watch the matches live on the TV screens in India."

Majola said being chosen "is a great compliment to South Africa.""We look forward to hosting some of the world's best cricketers."

Modi said putting on the tournament overseas would cost more, eating into profits. "But the game of cricket is more important than anything else."

The IPL features eight city-based franchises. The league attracts many of the world's leading players.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced over the weekend it was moving the tournament abroad because the government had refused to sanction its match schedule. Because of India's federal elections, officials were concerned that security forces would be stretched too thinly to cover both events.

The government wanted IPL organisers to delay the tournament, but that would have been impractical for international cricket, with the Twenty20 World Cup scheduled for June in England.

The official fixture list is yet to be released, but it is believed all South Africa's major Test centres - Johannesburg, Durban, Centurion, Port Elizabeth, East London and Cape Town - will be used as host venues.

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No major surprise, this. England may have offered players some sort of early acclimatisation ahead of the World Twenty20 in June, but only if the weather lets them on the field in early April. South Africa was the only sensible option on the table.

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Another large sporting event hosted with great success in South Africa.

Bring on the Confederations Cup, the Lions tour and the Manchester City tour to RSA.

Confederations Cup: Can South Africa Repeat Their IPL Success?

South Africa successfully hosted the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year at short notice. Goal.com's Subhankar Mondal now asks whether the southern African nation can do the same with the Confederations Cup and subsequently the 2010 World Cup finals.....

As the 2009 Indian Premier League came to an end on Sunday, South African president Jacob Zuma declared, "The month-long IPL has revived the country's economy. It has boosted the South African economy by 1 billion rand with the number of hotel rooms booked and the number of flights that were added. It has given a fillip to South African tourism. The IPL was a great advertisement for next month's Confederations Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup.”

Nine times out of ten you would have been cynical of that and would have delve deeper to try and find out for yourself whether indeed the competition has been as successful as it is being claimed to be, but this is the one time that you can't help agreeing.

This year’s IPL was slated to be held in the cricket-mad nation of India but thanks to the election dates coinciding with the match dates and the Indian government unable to assure full security, the much hyped competition was airlifted to South Africa, a nation that is as much famous for cricket as it is for football.

To state that the IPL 2009 has been a success would be an understatement. Initially there were apprehensions whether South Africa could organize such a mega event as successfully as it should but in the past month or so all those fears have been allayed and nullified. The South African sports organizers have demonstrated that they can host a major sporting event successfully even at short notice.

Which has now made all those cynics who initially doubted South Africa's credentials to host the 2010 World Cup finals look stupid. The IPL was a precursor to the Confederations Cup that is scheduled to be held in the nation from June 14. The Confederations Cup is a mini-World Cup (well, sort of), itself a precursor to the World Cup finals in which the respective confederation winners along with the World Cup winners and the hosts would compete to become the best of the lot. It is one of the major football competitions in the world and gives an idea of how the nation that is to host the World Cup will cope with the whole affair.

Hosting the IPL has given South Africa a huge boost. This was always going to be an exercise to show the world that they do possess the necessary credentials to host a major sporting event. In the past this illustrious nation has hosted the Rugby and Cricket World Cups and after their successful hosting of the IPL campaign, it is only fair that people start believing in their abilities.

The IPL saw no incident with fan trouble or terrorism. The visiting fans and the tourists had a great time with everything organized to perfection. Security was tight and there were no incidents of anyone getting hurt. Of course, you might point out that an IPL isn't necessarily as huge as a Confederations Cup, let alone a World Cup, but given South Africa's ability to cope with the IPL situation, it is only fair that we give them the benefit of the doubt.

If you ask the organizers in South Africa, they would tell you just how well organized and secure the IPL has been this year. The chairman of Cricket South Africa, Dr Mtutuzeli Nyoka, was earlier quoted as saying, "I don't think there's any doubt in anyone's mind now about security next year. I'm sure FIFA is looking at the situation and if they were to talk to any IPL players or administrators, they would hear how well they have been looked after from a security point of view. When you go to the stadiums, you see how strict security is - it's been amazing - so South Africa is ready to go as far as security is concerned."

Moreover, only four World Cup venues would be used for the Confederations Cup which is only going to help allay fears of security in the nation. Speaking to the BBC earlier this month, Ivor Hoff, chief director of sport for Gauteng Province that will host the World Cup final explained, "We have recently staged the Indian Premier League cricket at short notice and our elections, featuring 17 million people, were held in two days and without incident. We are very confident that South Africa can host the World Cup successfully. The Confederations Cup will give us the necessary understating of our strengths and weaknesses. It is a huge project but we will be ready. And making sure we have a successful competition can help make sure we are ready for 2010."

As unbiased and objective it sounds, it is also a frank admission that some things still need to be sorted out. The Confederations Cup will certainly be a measurement of South Africa's ability to organize and host the Football World Cup and if any problem arises, then it can be mitigated and eradicated between now and 2010 World Cup finals.

But what about the fans? How have they been welcoming the idea of hosting the World Cup finals for the first ever time in the so-called Dark Continent? Goal.com's World Cup Editor Peter Pedroncelli says that people in South Africa are more than just eager to play host to the biggest single sports event in the world.

“South African sentiment towards the tournament is very positive, and stats show that the few cynical people are decreasing as we get closer to the event. The expenditure is being considered in terms of the end product and especially the legacy that all the improvements (stadia, roads, telecommunications, security) will leave the country with. So in that way the money being spent is likely to be recuperated through tourism booms, improvements and job creation.”

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