Bad news for Indian fans, IPL Season 2 will be held outside India. Though the final decision on the venue will be take in a day or two, but two countries have emerged as the favorite for the new venue – South Africa and England.

Blaming the state governments for not providing adequate security, BCCI president Shashank Manohar announced that IPL 2 will be held outside India.  The BCCI took the decision in an emergency meeting as the dates of the tournament were clashing with general elections and the government had expressed reservations on providing security for the tournament.

“Due to the attitude of the government that it cannot provide security for the tournament, we are forced to take a decision to move the IPL out of India. I apologise to the people of India for moving the tournament out,” BCCI chief Shashank Manohar said.
“But we’re are going ahead with the event so that they can at least watch the event on television. A final decision on the venue will be announced in next two-three days,” Mahohar added.

As per PTI reports, IPL Commissioner and Chairman Lalit Modi said the number of matches, format and timing of the event will remain unchanged and the organisers would not tinker with the “integrity of the tournament”.

“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,” Modi said.

“Revenue cannot be an issue, the 59-match tournament will remain as 59-match tournament. The issue is the integrity of the tournament. We want to ensure the quality which we deliver and it cannot be compromised. We have to deliver the world standard event,” he said.

Manohar also expressed his displeasure at the state governments’ attitude, saying Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra Government changed there stance at the last moment.

“The AP government revoked its earlier permission and Maharashtra Chief Minister wrote a letter that we can’t host matches in that state until May 13. We had scheduled 18 matches for Maharashtra,” he said.

Asked if franchise were also taken into the confidence before taking the decision, Manohar said “the franchise would want the tournament to go ahead”.

South Africa and England are the two countries being considered as the likely venues, according to TV reports.

Earlier, South Africa was considered as one of the alternate venue and according to various reports emerging out of South Africa, Wanderers, Centurion and Potchefstroom are likely venues for the mega event if South Africa takes over the tournament this year, Times Now reported.

The reports also suggested that IPL chairman Modi and Cricket South Africa boss Gerald Majola have already had discussions about making a last-minute transfer of the tournament to that country. Senior officials from India and South Africa, however, have denied the possibility of relocating the IPL’s second season to South Africa.

Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola has denied any such move to shift the IPL to South Africa saying that there has been no official approach to Cricket South Africa, either by the BCCI or the IPL, and they don’t know where these rumours are emanating from.

If the tournament does move, it is expected to start around the third week of April, after the end of the South Africa-Australia One-Day series.

Source: TNN

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