Page 45 - IPL 2

It was at 10:30 pm on Sunday. I decided that it was time to pack up the bags and half an hour later we were on a

fl ight on to South Africa. We did not know at that point of time if South Africa would accept and be able to provide
all the infrastructure and the help that we needed so we had planned to be in South Africa for the morning and that
very evening leave for London. We arrived in Jo’burg in the morning and met with the Cricket Association and they
went out of their way to facilitate us and agreed to whatever we wanted and kept their doors open. That afternoon
we met with the in coming President, Jacob Zuma, who was kind enough to say that he would declare IPL a national

sporting event and that helped us to get over a lot of issues in terms of security and tax issues, all in a matter of
hours. We had a meeting with the members of the CSA Board that same very day and they offered to give us the 8
venues that we needed. So we knew we were on board by that evening. I then asked all our teams from all over the
world to start getting into South Africa by the next day and you know, in the next 48 hours, we had 700 – 800 people
there to go out to execute a plan that we had to start from scratch.
LALIT MODI IPL

Cricket South Africa had ensured that the London fl ight was never boarded. They rolled out a red carpet that stretched
across an ocean from the Cape of Good Hope all the way around the Bay of Bengal.

When I received the fi rst call from Lalit Modi asking if we would be in a position to host the 2009 IPL my fi rst reaction
was: Wow!
My second reaction was that Cricket South Africa should do all in its power to assist a fellow member of the ICC in a

time of crisis, especially such a close and valued member as the BCCI.
My third reaction was that we can do it. We have the climate, the facilities, the track record and the public following
to stage high profi le cricket events. We had recently hosted a most successful inaugural ICC Twenty 20 Trophy and
we were coming off our own domestic season so all could be put in place overnight.
GERALD MAJOLA CSA

So the primary issue had now been taken care of. The IPL had a new house. But the house had to be made a home. There
was a lot of luggage to be moved, walls to be painted in different colors. There were points to prove and reputations
at stake. Something of this scale had never been done before. The responsibility of the entire packing and moving fell
squarely on the broad shoulders of IMG.

I remember Lalit phoned me early in the morning at home in London. He needed a feasibility study of shifting the IPL

outside the country, he needed it for his meeting the next morning with the owners. I cancelled my meetings for the
day and got my team working on it. I remember the summary of the report. We said it would only be possible if where
we go there is complete cooperation from both the government authorities and the cricket authorities because we
don’t have time to go negotiate everything. We need people to be welcoming us and say ‘yes its possible’ and ask
us, ‘how can we help?’
PETER GRIFFITH, IMG

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