IPL matches go abroad

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Indian Premier League’s administrators on Sunday dropped a bombshell, saying they had no choice but to take the second edition of the tournament to an overseas venue as they were not in a position to either trim the schedule or to find alternate dates for IPL-2.

Bowing to pressure from the Union government as IPL-2 was clashing directly with the forthcoming elections to the Lok Sabha and some state Assemblies, the game’s administrators met in Mumbai and in consultation with the eight franchise owners decided to relocate the second edition of the tournament to either South Africa or England.

In a statement, BCCI secretary N. Srinivasan said: “Under the given circumstances, there is no other period for the conduct of IPL matches. There are many stakeholders in the Indian Premier League apart from the BCCI - the players, franchise owners, media partners, team sponsors, venue sponsors, apart from the cricket loving public at large.”

“The BCCI, therefore, is not in a position to either play a truncated IPL or to cancel the second edition of the IPL. It is a matter of great regret that, in the prevailing atmosphere, where the government is expressing concern for providing security to IPL matches, the BCCI is left with no other option but to conduct the IPL in another country.”

Speaking at a press conference earlier in Mumbai, IPL commissioner Lalit Modi said a final decision on where IPL-2 would be played - South Africa or England, which have emerged as the two front-runners among possible host countries - would be taken by Monday and a schedule would be announced accordingly.