The second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 championship will now be held outside India. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday announced in a press conference, though the final decision will come within couple of days.
The decision came against the wishes of millions of cricket fans in India following the clash of cricket schedule with the forthcoming general election. The Government of India had expressed its inability and concern for providing full security to the both.
After an emergency meeting between the IPL organizer, BCCI members and the franchise owners; the result came that in the prevailing atmosphere, where the Government is expressing concern for providing security to the IPL matches, the organizers have no option but to move IPL outside India.
Blaming the government entirely for its attitude, the BCCI president Shashank Manohar apologized to the people of India and said IPL is in discussion with other boards especially South Africa and England for the availability of infrastructure and any reschedule of matches to stage this mega event.
With regret, the BCCI president said, “We tried our best to hold the event in India but due to the attitude of the government we are forced to move IPL out of India,” the franchises would not oppose the decision, he added.
IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi, however, informed in the press conference that the format and dates would remain be the same while matches can be viewed at 4 p.m. IST and 8 p.m. IST on the match days.
According to reports, South Africa and England emerge as the most likely alternative venues for the matches. Wanderers, Centurion and Potchefstroom are expected venues for the mega event, if South Africa takes over the tournament this year.
With this, none of the Indian Premier League (IPL) season two matches will be held in India. However, to some, this might be a pressure tactic by the Board to compel the Central government in reassessing the possibility of security arrangements.
The IPL tournament is scheduled to be held from April 10 to May 24 while the Lok Sabha election is between April 16 and May 13.
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