The Indian Premier League, session 2 has brought to South Africa an event that threatens to at least maeginally change the economy of the nation for the next one and half months.
At the helm of it all is Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, who looks fresher with each tiring day gone by.
By now, he acn spell the names of each and every sponsor supporting the tournament backwards, roll out the amount of money they've invested, the number of people who've flown in here, the number of tickets that have been sold and the kind of profits this event will generate.
Addressing the media here that has flown in form almost the cricket-playing nations, Modi emphatically announced that over 40,000 hotel rooms had been booked.
A couple of journalists who had landed South Africa the same afternoon in a British Airways flight and drove straight to the stadium with their luggage for lack of any accomodation then understood why.
"Can we get tickets?" is the firstquestion any Indian traveller to this port city is asking.
The matches will begin on Saturday at 1pm and 4pm local time, and every single pub in the city is planning to open much earlierthan normal.
Fanni de Villiers is heading the marketing drive and the formar South African fast bowler has taken it open himself to ensure that the message of IPL being the show of the decade here is spread across."it'll be great mainly because of two reasons," says de Villiers.
"There are many Indian supporters here, and secondly the cricket itself is exciting.
"The wheather is fantastic and I can tell you there'll be a lot for those coming to watch the sixes. The grounds are not very big, the piches are just perfact for a good T20 game."
The opening ceremony will be held after the matches for the day are over with skating and fire artists, laser shows, dance and music on the menu.
It'll be a shock and not just surprise if the IPL doesn't sweep the carpet from under South Africa's feet.
Monday, September 14, 2009
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