England, South Africa are Frontrunners to Host 2009 (IPL) Indian Premier League

Posted by Bill Belew on March 22nd, 2009 in Gadgets, gizmos and toys | Comments Off

This is kind of weird. But, the BCCI , the cricket board of India held an emergency meeting today and decided to conduct the high profile, and not to mention the richest competition in the world, IPL, Twenty20 Tournament outside of India.

England and South Africa have emerged as the front-runners to host the Indian Premier League (

IPL).

The venue and new schedule will be announced on Monday.

“Because of the attitude of the Indian government that they are not ready to spare security forces for the cricket tournament, we are forced to take the decision to move the event out of India,” BCCI President Shashank Manohar told in a press conference.

“I apologise to the people of India for

moving the tournament out,” Manohar added.

The England

Cricket Board said it had received a request from the BCCI and the

IPL and it was looking into the possibility of hosting the tournament in England.

ECB chairman, Giles Clarke, said that he was willing to help his Indian counterparts. Help = means make a lot of money.

“We normally talk to them a great deal and we would be delighted to help again,” he said.

Gerald Majola, Cricket South Africa’s CEO, said that

South Africa was ready and willing to host

IPL if needed. He hoped to have “positive discussions” with Indian

IPL officials in this regard over the phone on Monday.

Lalit Modi, the

IPL commissioner, who was present at the working committee meeting said there will be no changes made to the IPL’s format or the schedule…except place, of course.

“Dates and timings of the matches will remain the same. The Indian audiences can watch the matches at 4 pm and 8 pm IST as they did in the inaugural season,” he said.

Modi also said that there was no chance of the semi final or Final games being played in India.

“We explored all possibilities of moving the semi-finals and final to India,” Modi said. “But it would have been too exhausting for the players. Players have to go back to England for the World Twenty20 (beginning on June 5).”


 

Comments are closed.