IPL huge logistical exercise, but will benefit S. Africa

Hosting the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2009 series in South Africa will be a huge logistical exercise but would bring economic advantages to the host country, the heads of the cricket bodies in both India and South Africa said here. 'We are starting from ground zero after working on this tournament in India for nine months,' Lalit Modi, chairman and commissioner of the IPL, said at a press conference Tuesday evening. 'We've now got to put up probably the single largest logistic tournament in the world in any sport in a matter of 45 days at six venues. 'Teams of a few hundred people will be arriving in the next 24 hours from all over the world who will be working with us out here. We will probably have over a thousand people working on this tournament at any given point of time,' Modi said. 'We will be consuming in excess of 30,000 hotel room nights, (and) consuming over 10,000 airline tickets over the next six weeks in South Africa,' he added. Modi said these were just some of the factors that would contribute towards the South African economy getting a boost. 'The main reason for us agreeing to host the IPL 2009 was to extend a hand of friendship to India when India called us to say they had a problem and could South Africa help them, (but) we will also gain because we will be paid some money to host the game,' said Cricket South Africa (CSA) chief executive Gerald Majola. Modi also expressed the hope that CSA would use the opportunity to learn for its own proposed IPL-type series. 'We know that CSA is looking at a similar concept to the IPL and perhaps this will help them build on that,' said Modi.