JOIN US‘S Africa preferred alternative’
The Governing Council of the Indian Premier League on Thursday finalised April 9 to June 3, 2014 as the window for the seventh edition of the tournament.
After the GC meeting held here, IPL Chairman Ranjib Biswal and BCCI Secretary Sanjay Patel also said that India remained the venue of choice for the event. But they indicated that since the dates of the IPL are clashing with country’s general elections, they have kept South Africa as the preferred alternative venue. A final decision in this regard will be taken only after the meeting between the IPL and home ministry officials.
“We are considering so many options with regards to the venue. We are waiting first for the home ministry to check the possible dates,” said Sanjay Patel, the BCCI secretary. "As far as possible our interest is to hold the IPL in India. Then, probably, South Africa is the preferred venue at the moment. The second option is also there and the third option is also there,” he said.
Some earlier reports suggested that the IPL officials had marked United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh as possible venues along with South Africa.
On meeting with the home ministry officials, Biswal said: "We will be speaking to the officials in the government of India and the home ministry. We want to hold the maximum number of matches in India and if we get the green signal from the government, then probably the whole tournament can be played here."
However, the franchises were not unduly worried about the prospects of playing in a different country. “We are not really worried about where we are playing. We have enough quality in our side to tackle any conditions. Once you are a cricketer, then you need to play in all conditions,” said TA Sekar, assistant coach of Delhi Daredevils.
Royal Challengers Bangalore had complained officially to the GC about acutioneer Richard Madley’s decision to re-open the bidding for Yuvraj Singh that resulted in them spending extra four crores to fetch the left-hander. Royal Challengers had already won the bid for Yuvraj at Rs 10 crore when Madley spotted the raised bidding paddle by Kolkata Knight Riders, thus re-opening the bid. Biswal confirmed that RCB had officially complained about the decision, but said the auctioneer’s call was binding.